Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev did not exclude the possibility of deploying servicemen to patrol the streets of the capital.

This was one of the scenarios exercised during the large-scale anti-terror training of the police and army held in Sofia on Tuesday night and the early hours on Wednesday.

Nenchev noted that the deployment of joint patrols of police officers and troops has become increasingly common on the streets of European capitals after the latest terrorist attacks.

If the need arises, Bulgaria might deploy such patrols on the streets of Sofia, the minister added.

The anti-terror training, which had been planned two months ago, was aimed at assessing the capacity of the interior and defence ministries and other state institutions to react in the event of crisis situation.

The training was held in the area of the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in downtown Sofia and Konstantin Velichkov underground station on Sofia metro line 1.

Witnesses of the training expressed their discontent on social media as passers-by had been detained and their identity documents checked only because they had happened to be in the areas at the time of the training.

The interior and defence ministries had informed of the training beforehand, but had not specified its exact location.

The interior ministry apologised for any inconvenience caused to citizens and thanked for the understanding demonstrated by them.

They explained that citizens have been detained according to the instructions issued to the people in charge of the training.

The aim of the training was to recreate as realistic as possible situations and even the crews themselves did not know the exact location of their deployment.

The chief secretary of the interior ministry Georgi Kostov admitted the initial plan had not foreseen informing the media of the training.

However in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Brussels it was decided to inform the society so that no additional panic is created.