A new app showing how to provide medical assistance in the event of a terrorist attack has won the backing of national security agencies.
CitizenAID demonstrates simple first aid with a focus on the skills most likely to be needed after a bombing or a mass shooting, such as applying a tourniquet.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Contributor Sir Keith Porter, one of the UK's foremost experts in clinical traumatology, says rapid action from members of the public could make a life-saving difference in the event of a terrorist event.
"I have treated hundreds of soldiers whose lives have been saved by simply the applications of tourniquets when they have been shot or blown up," he told the BBC.
"Teaching individual soldiers these skills has saved lives and I think it is essential we train the public in those skills and that is exactly what CitizenAID does."
Official advice for people caught up in a terrorist attack is the "run, hide, tell" strategy - run from the incident, hide if this is not possible and tell the emergency services.
However, the apps creators believe that once the danger is over, those who are unharmed can give basic medical attention to the injured before the emergency services arrive.
Chief Inspector Richard Harding, head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said the agency was "really interested" in CitizenAID.
As first responders' priority at an incident is securing the scene, they "won't have time to deal with the people who are injured", he said, adding: "That gap is vital to saving people's lives."
MI5 currently rates the terror threat to the UK as "severe", meaning an attack is highly likely, but Harding stressed the risk of becoming involved in an attack was still "very rare".
-
Neanderthal gene ‘caused up to a million Covid deaths’Speed Read Genetic tweak found in one in six Britons means cells in the lungs are slower to launch defences
-
Legalising assisted dying: a complex, fraught and ‘necessary’ debateSpeed Read The Assisted Dying Bill – which would allow doctors to assist in the deaths of terminally ill patients – has relevance for ‘millions’
-
Vaccinating children: it’s decision time for the health secretary as kids return to schoolSpeed Read Sajid Javid readying NHS England to roll out jab for children over 12, amid fears infections will rocket
-
‘Vaccination blunts, but does not defeat’: exploring Israel’s fourth Covid waveSpeed Read Two months ago, face masks were consigned to bins. Now the country is in a ‘unique moment of epidemiological doubt’
-
Thousands told to self-isolate in Covid app pinging error, claims Whitehall whistleblowerSpeed Read Source says Matt Hancock was privately told of the issue shortly before he resigned as health secretary
-
Record 5.45m people on NHS England waiting listsSpeed Read Health chief warns that crisis is nearing ‘boiling point’ as backlog grows
-
Covid testing: the ‘great new game of holiday roulette’Speed Read On one day last week, the price of a private PCR test ranged from £23.99 to £575
-
San Marino is first European country to offer ‘vaccine vacation’Speed Read Tiny landlocked nation to give Russian Sputnik vaccine to paying tourists
