More than 400 people have been given a crash course in counter-terrorism to help prevent disaster at the Labour Party Conference.

Workers at businesses in Brighton and Hove learnt how homemade bombs are planted, how to spot suspicious behaviour and how to man security cordons if a terror alert does take place.

Police and army experts also gave demonstrations of bomb disposal methods and showed shocking videos of suicide attacks to workers.

Staff from the The Grand, the Hilton Metropole, the Brighton Centre and shop workers from Churchill Square and The Lanes took part in the sessions.

Door staff and nightclub managers also attended the briefings at the Brighton Centre yesterday and on Tuesday.

The prime minister, the cabinet, MPs and thousands of councillors and activists are all due to descend on the city between September 26 and October 1.

The event, the first Labour conference in the Brighton since 2005, is expected to bring £10m into the city economy.

About 1,000 police officers are expected to take part in Operation Otter, creating a ‘ring of steel’ to protect the delegates.

Police have written to protesters asking them to provide details of plans for demonstrations during the conference.

This week’s training is part of the City of London Police’s Project Griffin, which was introduced at Gatwick Airport last year, to help ensure normal people could help prevent a repeat of2005’s July 7 bombings.

Superintendent Grenville Wilson, planning co-ordinator for Operation Otter, said: "There is nothing to suggest that there is a specific threat to the Labour Party Conference, indeed the threat level is low.

“However, being alert, vigilant, recognising what is unusual and what to do with that information is key to all our core businesses, not just the police.

“The empowerment of a vigilant workforce within the city's business community may disrupt and frustrate any potential terrorist cell, therefore the importance of Griffin cannot be understated.”

Tony Mernagh, chief executive of Brighton Business Forum, said: “The people who work across the city are best placed to notice anything unusual.

“Through this initiative staff can feel confident passing on information which might be helpful in countering terrorism and will learn a valuable lesson in identifying suspicious behaviour that can be applied in a variety of situations in addition to terrorism."