Ex-police superintendent head of Hong Kong's elite counterterrorism unit calls for citywide incident drill

Hong Kong is well prepared for a possible terrorist attack, having set up a counterterrorism response unit in 2009, a former policeman who formed the elite 141-member team says.

The problem, however, is that the government's three-tier response system has never been tested on a citywide scale, according to former superintendent Clement Lai Ka-chi.

The threat of terrorism was brought close to home when a Bangkok blast last month killed 20 people, including two Hongkongers, prompting scrutiny of Hong Kong's own emergency response system.

The government's emergency response system was the the go-to framework when there was a threat to life, property or public security, but it had never been fully tested, Lai said.

"Hong Kong is pretty well prepared because it is very proactive," Lai, who resigned from the force last September, said.

"We have the tier system, the units, the officers, the skills. We don't have the experience but we learn it from overseas. The only thing is we need a good test of the whole thing."