simulated riot this past weekend at the US Naval Annex. And all of it was a test of their ability to control unruly crowds.

Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Regiment Col. David Burch said 95 percent of the soldiers attended the riot exercise which started on Friday at 7 p.m.

"The riot phase is an ultimate test of a soldier's ability to handle crowd control,'' Col. Burch said.

"The exercise is designed to test all of the internal security skills that we are likely to be called upon to do.'' Col. Burch added that second and third year soldiers were trying to stop the riot while first year soldiers acted as the rioters.

"On Friday night the soldiers were required to be at the Bermuda Regiment, and once there they were suited up with weapons and other accessories from their kits and then in two groups they walked to the annex,'' Col. Burch added.

He also said that each group was assigned to guard simulated key points of Bermuda.

Col. Burch added a few of the soldiers suffered minor injuries but none required hospitalisation.

When asked how successful the exercise he replied: "I think the best ruler of how successful it was is the level of injuries suffered by the security force, and because we did not suffer any serious injuries, it was 100 percent successful.

"Along with the riot activities the soldiers were also involved in other exercises which consisted of patrolling vehicle check points, and cordon search -- the sectioning off of areas so soldiers can search for arms, weapons or wanted people.'' Col. Burch said everything went extremely well. "A few areas need improvement but that is what these tests are for, to identify the strengths and weaknesses.'' He added: "The interesting aspect of the riot is that the rioters were left to clean the area up, and it took them a couple of hours.''