SAS soldiers abseil on to Preston's County Hall roof from helicopters
The SAS stormed County Hall in Preston last night in a thrilling training exercise which saw soldiers abseiling onto the Council’s roof from helicopters.
It was an impressive sight as a pair of SAS choppers thundered above the council’s headquarters around 8.40pm before soldiers zipped down a rope onto its roof - part of a series of exercises conducted across Lancashire yesterday.
With their lights turned off, the special forces helicopters - nicknamed ‘Blue Thunder’ - hung in the air while shadowy figures expertly abseiled 20ft from a cable to the roof below. A demonstration of the iconic SAS manoeuvre known as ‘fast-roping’.
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The SAS are a special forces unit of the British Army that specializes in counter-terrorism, hostage rescue and other special ops roles such as protecting the Royal Family. The helicopters are painted in civilian colours to allow them to move around the UK quickly and secretly.
A spokesman for Lancashire County Council told the Post: "We can confirm that a training exercise took place on Monday (November 18) at our venue. This was a pre-planned exercise in conjunction with the exercise organisers.
“This is not in response to any particular threat but we are keen to support responders to ensure that they are as prepared as possible to deal with any incident.
“This also allows us to take a pro-active and engaging approach with our own preparedness which the public and users of our facilities would expect."
The Special Air Service were busy across the region on Monday, with its Dauphin helicopters also dropping soldiers onto the fire training centre in Euxton near Chorley earlier in the evening.
The special forces unit were also spotted refuelling at Blackpool Airport and Barton Aerodrome near the Trafford Centre in Manchester. The exercises were believed to be part of routine training under the command of the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing.
The SAS are no strangers to Lancashire, having visited the county a number of times in recent years for training purposes.
In 2023, they were filmed touching down on top of Blackpool Sixth Form College. Soldiers leaped out of the helicopters and made their way to ground level where they gathered in the car park before leaving in a convoy. You can watch footage from the Blackpool training in our video player.