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An emergency fire and evacuation exercise is to take place on the NorthLink vessel MV Hjaltland at Aberdeen Harbour on Friday (March 10).

The exercise will involve a simulated engine room fire and about 30 students from Aberdeen College will play the role of passengers.

A NorthLink spokesman said: “The exercise will be accompanied by a significant amount of smoke and a fair amount of activity. We were keen to make an announcement in advance of the exercise in case passers-by became alarmed.”

The exercise, which envisages the NorthLink ferry returning to port once the fire has been discovered, is due to begin around 11.00am on Friday.

Once the vessel has “returned to port”, Grampian Fire and Rescue service will check the status of the fire while the college students will disembark and will be checked by ambulance staff before being transferred to a nearby reception centre where Grampian Police will conduct a roll call against the ship’s passenger manifest.

Organisations taking part include Northlink Ferries and the company’s joint venture partner Caledonian Macbrayne, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Scottish Ambulance Service, Grampian Fire and Rescue Service, Aberdeen Harbour Board, Grampian Emergency Planning Unit and Grampian Police.

The area in which the exercise is taking place will be cordoned off and the public are asked not to visit the scene.

The NorthLink spokesman added: “We are grateful to all those who have planned and are participating in this exercise. Customer safety is clearly top of our priority list and this exercise is aimed at testing the procedures we would implement in the unlikely event of such an emergency."

Steve Piggot of the Marine and Coastguard Agency, based in Aberdeen said: "The various participating organisations welcome this opportunity to test their own procedures and processes and how they work together in an emergency.

"It is something we work on continuously through the Grampian Joint Emergency Executive Committee and its working groups. The aim is to deliver a co-ordinated and effective response to any kind of emergency situation. There are many exercises with oil and gas companies, the airport, the RAF and so on. This exercise will expand our ability and knowledge into another sphere – an incident involving the transport of significant numbers of people by sea."