One of the largest ever mass casualty drills took place today.

Code-named Exercise Red Ship, it was held at the LV21 lightship on the River Thames off Gravesend.

A noticeable presence of emergency services were in attendance, along with seven volunteer actors from the charity Casualties Union pretending to be injured.

The RNLI's lifeboat Olive Laura Deare II was joined by the London Coastguard, Port of London Authority, Kent Fire and Rescue Service and South East Coast Ambulance Service.

The LV21 is a historic, 40-metre steel-hulled lightship which saw most of its service off the Kent coast.

It was retired from service in 2008 and has now been transformed into a floating art space and performance facility.

LV21 Director Páivi Seppälä said: 'We’re delighted to work together with the emergency services and support one of the largest multi-agency training exercises the River Thames has ever seen along Gravesend riverfront.

“The safety of our crew, volunteers and visitors is of utmost importance to us, so we welcomed this unique opportunity to observe and learn from the first responders' response to a hypothetical major incident aboard the historic lightship LV21.”

RNLI Thames commander Liam Sidders added: “Some of the role-playing casualties were walking wounded and some were required to be evacuated using special equipment.

“Injuries sustained included burns, fractures and smoke inhalation.

“Multi-agency exercises like this are integral for the services to come together and further enhance their own emergency procedures, enabling to work with unfamiliar environments and improve command of control for mass casualty events.”