ATLANTA — Nearly a million people will descend on Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII, with many of them riding MARTA to get to the game.
As part of their preparation, police shut down the Dome station for a very realistic training exercise. Fake gunmen shot of round after round, in a scary hypothetical scene. Simulated Explosions rocked downtown Atlanta in the middle of the night.
Muzzle fire popped out from behind the big concrete pillars, as the largest emergency preparedness exercise in the region filled the underground station with smoke and until 3 a.m.
Actors with makeup simulated victims with real injuries and lay on the floor in an eerie make-believe scene.
Photo: Police simulate emergency at MARTA to prepare for Super Bowl
They simulated an officer injury – and had the real SWAT team come in. At one point they even brought in a robot – to detonate a bomb.
All of it was fake, but the experience was very real. They’ve been planning it for several years, but officials said the full-scale exercise helped them find any gaps in their safety plans as they head into crunch time before the big game.
