Crack squad of heavily armed anti-terror policemen to cover Hong Kong’s rail network from Sunday
- Wielding semi-automatic pistols and submachine guns, the Railway Response Team will also provide emergency reaction to major incidents, district commander says
Hong Kong’s first railway terrorism response team is set to cover all 93 of the city’s MTR stations from Sunday, police have revealed.
The newly established Railway Response Team (RRT), comprising 34 heavily armed officers, is under the command of the Police Railway District.
Leung Chung-man, the district’s commander, said on Friday the group would do two shifts a day on duty, while a team of four officers would patrol all stations during railway operation hours.
Officers, who did six weeks of special training, would patrol station concourses, platforms and carriages, Leung added. He said there would be more frequent patrols at higher-risk and major interchange stations on urban lines, such as Kowloon Tong, Central and Admiralty.
“There is a heightened anti-terrorist situation worldwide. In particular there were terrorist attacks against railway systems in different parts of the world,” Chan said, adding that apart from responding to any terror attacks in stations, the team would provide immediate tactical response to all major incidents on railways.
