We're under the streets of Helsinki, the capital
of Finland, and I'm going to show you the
elaborate tunnels and passageways they have.
A lot of it is public space that looks like
they're sporting fields. People use this all
the time and yet you can see the granite rock
and the fact that this space can be turned
into bedding for 1,500 people in three days.
That's the time limit they give themselves
to turn this from a sporting field into a
shelter if required.
We're going to walk through here, I'm going
to show you some of the other tunnels, because
they go right across, underneath the streets
of Helsinki.
It's all part of their civil defence. They
won't say that it's to do with a threat, possibly
from Russia, it could be a nuclear attack,
it could be chemical warfare, it could be
anything. But they want to be prepared.  So
now we're coming into one of the other tunnels.
Have a look at this – these are the beds
that they have prepared, bunk beds that people
can sleep on. They've got medical equipment
ready, and then over here this is how they
would go to the toilet.
So the toilets would be here, they've got
the ventilation up there. The yellow lines
on the floor are where each of the toilets
would be put.
And have a look at that tunnel there behind
me, so you can imagine this runs all the way,
if we kept following this, you would keep
coming into some of those public areas that
could be sporting fields, or swimming pools,
areas that can be easily turned into some
kind of shelter for the people of Helsinki.
They could fit 700,000 people in here, that's
more than the entire population, if they have
to.
They maintain them very well, they make sure
they've got their own air supply in case it
is a nuclear accident from eastern Europe,
and they have to come down here and protect
themselves. They make sure that they’ve
got everything set and ready to go.
They are more advanced with this than just
about any other city in Europe, and although
they share this massive border with Russia,
and there is this question about whether Russia
is a threat to Finland, they say they're taking
into consideration any worse case scenario,
and they're ready for it.
