The Donau is the second largest river in Europe and the “highway” for many shipping companies.

Several hundreds of thousands of tourists go on cruising trips, for instance on so called longboats that can carry over 250 people including crew.

One of the 134 meter long cruising ships became the scene of an international anti-terrorist exercise, with a fictional hostage situation. The fictive terrorists threatened to shoot the hostage and blow up a bomb.

Below: Steyr AUG in the hands of a “terrorist”. Note the unshot cartridge that is ejecting, not sure how that could happen?

Photo: © Tomas Moll

To counter-attack, units from EKO Cobra (Austria) and Special Units from Bavaria (Germany), Slovakia (LYNX unit), Slovenia and Hungary were used.

Below: Steyr AUG and Heckler & Koch MP5. Pictures from SEK.

Photo: © Tomas Moll

Note the “blue gun” conversion on the AUG to fire blanks.

Photo: © Tomas Moll

EKO Cobra (Einsatzkommando Cobra) from Austria with B&T blue guns. Most likely B&T APC9 and Glocks.

Below: Helmet from MSA on a Cobra team member.

Below: The 4×4 Survivor.

Heckler & Koch MP5, in the hands of the Slovakian team. .

The national and international anti-terrorist units united.

It’s great to see joint exercises like this. You can find more information from the BMI here. (German)

There is also a video, including sky diving from a helicopter: