Challenges
A global biopharmaceutical company focused on serving patients and families affected by rare diseases often sees its personnel traveling to remote destinations. But when a number of its personnel found themselves caught at the center of a terrorist attack, it was in a rather more unexpected location.
A lone perpetrator driving a stolen van sped down a busy pedestrian street in Stockholm, Sweden, intentionally hitting innocent bystanders. The van then crashed into the corner wall of an office building where three of the client’s staff were working just floors above. On hearing the crash and subsequent gunfire, the locally based team placed an emergency call to their Global Security Operations Center, who immediately contacted Everbridge for assistance.
With a major incident unfolding outside their building, the affected employees were obviously fearful for their own safety.
Solutions
Aware that the security situation was fluid, Everbridge liaised with the employees directly, coaching them on how to shelter-in-place and barricade the doors until support personnel could reach them. The employees were then talked through the specific identification protocols that would allow them to correctly identify the local Everbridge support personnel who would be retrieving them from their office and escorting them to safety.
Provided with the name, telephone number and photograph of the key close protection officer deployed, the employees were also provided with a password that the individual would use as an additional identifier on arrival.
In order to ensure the safe extraction of the employees, Everbridge provided a car, driver and close protection officer. Both the officer and the driver were trained in security operations, close protection and defensive driving.
With the immediate area cordoned off by the local police, the Everbridge team staged the vehicle nearby and proceeded on foot to the client’s office. As the situation in the city was deemed a terrorist attack, the impacted personnel were duly extracted and escorted to an official meeting point away from the incident and outside the city limits, in order for them to connect with family members and loved ones.
Those employees unable to be collected from the staging area were delivered directly to their homes. The employees were obviously very shaken up by the experience. Although physically unharmed themselves, the incident had resulted in a number of fatalities and numerous injuries, which were steadily being reported by media.
Experienced in dealing with traumatic events, the Everbridge driver and close protection officer were able to provide the employees with reassurance and support on the scene in order to help calm them down and deal with the immediate effects.
As standard practice after the event, Everbridge offered professional grief counseling and therapy support to those affected.
The outcome
All the affected personnel were safely extracted from their office and escorted to safety. Through-out the operation, the Everbridge team kept in close contact with the client’s own Global Security Operations Center in order to ensure that they were kept fully abreast of the situation and reassured that their employees were in safe hands.
