Washington D.C. to conduct 'full scale' terror attack drill today

Law enforcement officials across six cities in Washington, DC, metropolitan area on Wednesday will conduct a full scale drill to prepare for terror attacks.

"Emergency managers who work together at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) planned the exercise to help protect residents by preparing for an attack involving multiple target locations and teams of perpetrators," the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments said in a Tuesday media release.

The exercise will include hundreds of volunteer actors, emergency medical service workers, firefighters and police officers.

COG's Managing Director of Homeland Security and Public Safety Scott Boggs said in the release, "Law enforcement officials practice and exercise their skills on their own regularly because that's the best way to ensure we are always ready to respond quickly and professionally . On April 26, we'll go one step further and stage a very realistic emergency event involving multiple sites and actors posing as the casualties."

Boggs explained that the drill has been in the works for a year, and that the exercise wasn't related to the current international terror threat, but rather in preparation for incidents like that in Paris in November 2015, when 130 people were killed by Daesh supporters in multiple shootings and suicide bombings.