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South Florida Officers Go Through Intense Training For "Operation Heat Shield"

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- After an entire day of active shooter drills all across Miami-Dade County, one at Marlins Park was the last of eight Saturday night.

First responders acted as quickly in real-time to a hypothetical, but very possible scenario, of multiple shooters infiltrating the ball park during a jam-packed game.

A voice suddenly came on the loudspeaker advising fans of an emergency, telling them to stay put as police and fire rescue handled the situation.

Gunshots could be heard in the corridors of the ball park as the fake shooters and police exchanged gunfire.

Earlier Saturday another seven drills with bad guys threatening to kill people.

A terror cell took over the government center and the courthouse in Downtown Miami.   They shot innocent people after the terrorist leader's demands weren't met.

Even the injuries and gunshot wounds looked real, actors pretending to be victims, laid all across the building.

In Miami Beach, police approached a victim wearing a bomb vest and the U.S. Coast Guard took swat on its cutter to search for active shooters.

At Miami International Airport, more chaos.   Several unknown men took over a plane and started stabbing passengers.

The eight drills involved local, state and federal first responders from Monroe County up to Palm Beach County.

While they have drills throughout the year, operation heatshield is the largest drill ever in South Florida.

"Really it tests our abilities in how we communicate and how we address these threats,"  explained Director Juan Perez of the Miami Dade Police Department.  "Often times when we see something happen around the world and even here in our country the first questions that come to local law enforcement and fire is 'are you ready?'"

The guns shots, the injuries and the victims at the drills were not real.  But they can be, and have been, very real across the U.S. and the rest of the world.

"This is what we've been preparing for quite some time," said Director Perez.  "So this is gonna be something that's ongoing every year and we'll move the locations around and of course different scenarios so we can put our guys through a true test."

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