Society

Armed police drill to save hostages in Sichuan

By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-09-16 16:03

After six gunshots were heard in a row, passengers on a tour bus who were taken "hostage" by six outlaws were finally released – they were safe and the gangsters were dead.

Sichuan armed police take part in an anti-terrorism drill set in the same condition as the hostage tragedy in the Philippines on Aug 23 that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead, in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, Sept 15, 2010. [Photo/Tianfu Morning Post]

It took the snipers less than one minute from the first gunshot was heard until the last hostage-taker was gunned down, Chengdu Evening News said in its report Thursday about an anti-terrorism drill in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province.

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The drill, by Sichuan armed police on Wednesday, was set in the same condition as the hostage tragedy in the Philippines on Aug 23 that left eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage-taker himself dead, but used six hostage-takers.

The 11-hour hostage standoff in the Philippines was the most unsuccessful anti-terrorism case in the world, said Huang Xiaoping, adviser to the Sichuan armed police headquarters.

Huang said the headquarters ordered sub-branches of Sichuan's armed police to study ways to fight hostage-takers on buses immediately after the hostage tragedy in the Philippines.

Sichuan's armed police are fully prepared and ready to leave anytime once a hostage case happens, Huang said.