Counter-terrorist attack drills held

Armed officers from different police departments including SWAT and railway police take part in a ceremony at Shanghai Railway Station Wednesday ahead of the 4th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, which will be held in Shanghai next week. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

Police are stepping up security at the city's three railway stations and transportation hubs ahead of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Wednesday to ensure that at least one armed police officer can reach the scene of a potential counter-terrorist attack in about a minute.

Police held terrorist attack drills Wednesday at Shanghai South Railway Station and the Hongqiao Transportation Hub. The two drills aimed to shorten the time it took the first armed police officer to respond to a terrorist attack.

"The terrorist attacks and incidents in Kunming, Urumqi, and Guangzhou show that there is a trend that the terrorist threat is spreading to railway stations in big cities," said Hong Feng, the head of the police station of the Shanghai South Railway Station.

Hong said that the railway police are working with the Xuhui district police to add patrol officers at the boundaries of each of their respective areas of responsibility.

Both sides will react to an emergency in and around the railway station during the run-up to the CICA. Before the security change, only one of the groups of police would go to a scene depending on the location of the incident.

During the simulated terrorist attack at Shanghai South Railway Station, the first group of armed officers was on sight within two minutes. Two armed patrol officers from Xuhui District Public Security Bureau reached the scene in about 90 seconds. A special force unit squad from the railway police arrived in the next 30 seconds.

The second and third groups of 25 patrol officers, special force officers, and Armed Police officers arrived within five minutes of the start of the simulated attack.

Hong said that the railway police are backed up by about 100 officers from railway police departments in nearby cities.

Lu Chunhui, a senior officer from the Xuhui district police, said that the two police divisions will share access to their surveillance cameras for the first time. The district officers will be able to see live footage from inside the railway station from their own surveillance room.

More than 70,000 passengers arrive at or depart from the Shanghai South Railway Station each day. The station is connected to metro lines 1 and 3 and is adjacent to the Shanghai South Long- Distance Bus Station.

The 1.6 million-square-meter Hongqiao Transportation Hub, which is composed of two metro lines, Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and Hongqiao Railway Station, is the city's largest transportation hub. Police will pay it extra attention during the CICA period.

Zhu Jian, the director of the office that supervises all police divisions at the hub, said that the office has built a mechanism for the four police stations in the area to work together during emergencies.

Zhu said that it was difficult for the four police stations, which include the railway police, the airport police, the subway police and the Minhang district police to work together because each division operates independently and is overseen by different police departments.

To deal with this challenge, the office has built up four special squads of officers from different stations to patrol the boundary areas.

Ni Zhixian, the head of the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Police Station, said that previous terrorist attacks mostly took place at the boundaries of the responsible areas of railway police and other police divisions.

Ni said that the station has been reinforced by about 165 officers from railway police departments in nearby cities.

The drill at the Hongqiao hub had the first two armed officers on site within two minutes. About 20 officers from four police departments carrying more than 12 firearms arrived on scene in less than five minutes.

More than 700,000 passengers arrive at and depart from the hub each day.