Switzerland tests international response to simulated earthquake disaster

About 500 people are testing Switzerland’s earthquake response this week, as Swiss authorities host their first major European civil protection exercise under the European Union’s UPCM mechanism. The operation runs from Tuesday to Friday in Epeisses in Geneva canton, the city of Geneva and Payerne in Vaud canton. The scenario also includes severe damage in Fribourg.

The exercise assumes that an earthquake has overwhelmed Switzerland’s domestic resources. More than 250 emergency responders from EU countries and Armenia have joined Swiss civilians, armed forces personnel, civil protection specialists and volunteers acting as casualties. Together, they are rehearsing the sequence that would follow a real disaster: assess damage, request foreign assistance, receive international teams and place them into a functioning Swiss command structure.

The timing carries practical weight. Switzerland has already used the mechanism this year after the Crans-Montana fire in Valais. The January tragedy killed 41 people and injured 115. Several countries helped treat patients after Switzerland requested support. The current drill shifts the focus from a single emergency to a large, cross-border earthquake response, with multiple sites and teams working at once.

More than 250 foreign responders are working alongside Swiss teams, forcing the exercise to confront the administrative and operational demands of international aid. Under the UPCM, an associated country can ask European partners for assistance when a national emergency exceeds its available capacity. That request must lead to usable support, not simply a list of offers.

In practice, this means matching specialist teams to damaged sites, sharing information, establishing command links and integrating personnel who may use different procedures and equipment. The exercise brings together responders from EU countries and Armenia with Swiss civilians, members of the armed forces and volunteer role-players. Their work is designed to expose delays before an actual disaster creates them.

Philippe Boeglin, spokesperson for the Federal Office for Civil Protection, said the exercise must test how well teams from different countries can work together. François Fleuti, commander of Vaud Civil Defence, identified a specific risk: teams need to “speak the same technical language” to avoid losing valuable time. That language includes common terminology, compatible reporting and clear responsibility at the scene. The drill gives Switzerland a controlled setting to identify gaps in all three areas.

Rescuers are working through the slow, technical stages that determine whether a rubble operation is safe. In Epeisses, volunteers playing casualties were trapped beneath two piles of debris. Teams from Vaud and Geneva first assessed the area with specialist equipment and search dogs before beginning the extraction process.

The sequence reflects the hazards that follow a major earthquake. Rubble can shift without warning, damaged structures can collapse further and gas or other dangerous substances can accumulate in confined spaces. Before rescuers entered, the site had to be ventilated and stabilised. Those steps consume time, but skipping them could expose responders and trapped people to additional danger.

The exercise also tests whether teams can divide tasks without losing the overall picture. Search specialists must locate victims, engineers must judge structural risks and commanders must coordinate access, medical support and incoming resources. Vaud Civil Defence commander François Fleuti explained that his teams and their Geneva counterparts spent the morning searching, locating and rescuing people beneath the simulated debris. The work offers a practical measure of readiness, from the first assessment to the final handover of a survivor.

Switzerland’s real UPCM activation after the Crans-Montana fire gives this exercise a recent operational reference point. The fire in the Valais resort killed 41 people and injured 115 in January. Switzerland requested support through the European mechanism, and patients received treatment in several countries. That response demonstrated how international assistance can extend beyond rescue teams to include medical capacity.

The earthquake scenario raises a wider coordination problem. Damage across Geneva, Vaud and Fribourg would involve cantonal authorities, federal services, municipalities, armed forces personnel, civil protection organisations and foreign responders. Each level would have its own responsibilities, while roads, communications, hospitals and public services could be disrupted simultaneously.

The drill is designed to examine that chain before a real earthquake tests it under pressure. It asks when Switzerland should seek outside help, how it should describe its needs and how foreign units should operate once they arrive. The exercise also places cantonal cooperation at the centre of the response. Epeisses and Geneva provide operational sites, while Payerne expands the exercise across Vaud. The result should be a clearer picture of where federal coordination supports local action and where procedures require revision.

The exercise will matter only if its findings change how Switzerland prepares. Its immediate purpose is to practise international cooperation, but the detailed lessons will concern the systems behind the rescue scenes: alerting, requests for assistance, command integration, technical terminology, site safety and medical coordination.

For residents of Geneva, Vaud and Fribourg, the scenario underlines how quickly a disaster can cross administrative boundaries. A major earthquake would affect transport, hospitals, utilities and housing at the same time. Local responders would remain the first presence in many communities, while international teams could provide specialist capacity once Switzerland requested help. The exercise tests how those layers connect.

Federal and cantonal authorities now have an opportunity to turn observations into concrete revisions. They can review how quickly teams identify needs, whether incoming units receive reliable information and how commanders manage several sites. The UPCM framework gives Switzerland access to European partners, but effective assistance depends on preparation before the request is made. This week’s operation in western Switzerland provides a rare full-scale setting to measure that preparation, with international responders, Swiss authorities and role-players working through the same simulated disaster.