Tokyo Fire Department has started anti-terrorism drills ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games ©Getty Images

Tokyo Fire Department has conducted its first anti-terrorism drills in preparation for the city's hosting of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

All of the department's 18,000 employees were involved in the first drills of these kind, simulating scenarios involving bombs and chemical attacks.

According to the Japan Times, the training was designed to strengthen communication and speed up the sharing of information among the department's divisions across the Japanese capital.

Venues for the drills included a sports facility, a shopping mall and a railway station, as well as the famous Oi horse track in Shinagawa ward.

Work is underway on the aquatics centre in Tokyo, whose Fire Department this weekend conducted anti-terrorism drills in preparation for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games ©Getty Images
Work is underway on the aquatics centre in Tokyo, whose Fire Department this weekend conducted anti-terrorism drills in preparation for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games ©Getty Images

The drill at the racecourse, undertaken by approximately 2,700 staff members, was based on a scenario where about 1,500 people had been killed or injured after the explosions of two bombs.

Participants practiced rescuing victims and "triage", a process of deciding the priority for treating affected people according to the level of seriousness of their conditions.

"Some of the drills didn't go as smoothly as we had expected," said Tatsuya Yuasa, chief of the fire department's second district headquarters covering Shinagawa and neighbouring Ota Ward.

"We'll examine the latest drills and conduct more exercises."