Capital deploys armed rapid response vehicles in anti-terror effort

Beijing police began deployment of 150 armed patrol vehicles to city streets Monday in an effort to maintain stability and handle violent incidents in the capital.

The armed division aims to "strike on terrorist and violent crimes in a rapid and effective way," the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) said on its Sina Weibo account.

The 24-hour patrols are mainly responsible for handling emergency incidents involving guns, bombs, mass violence or terror attacks, according to the PSB. The force will not handle other alerts, such as disputes between individuals or appeals.

Each patrol vehicle has an armed team of nine police officers and four auxiliary police officers, who are divided into four shifts. On every shift, the vehicle must be staffed with at least two police officers and one auxiliary officer.

The force will cover main streets and other areas of heavy traffic, with each vehicle covering no more than three kilometers. Officers are required to arrive on the scene of any incident within three minutes after receiving a report.

The PSB said the armed patrols come in the face of the current severe and complicated anti-terrorism situation, the Beijing Evening News reported on Monday.

A fatal explosion at a railway station in Urumqi of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on April 30 killed three and injured 79.

In March, a terrorist attack at a train station in Kunming led to 29 deaths and 143 injuries. Beijing also witnessed a terror attack at China's iconic Tiananmen Square in October.

Beijing police have run at least three anti-terror drills over the past three weeks to improve responsiveness and coordination. The latest drill on Thursday involved a police helicopter and more than 30 vehicles from Beijing Special Weapons and Tactics Units, traffic control and other emergency response departments.

The People's Public Security University of China announced recently that it would soon begin recruiting 80 students per year across the country to enroll in its new anti-terrorism department, Beijing Youth Daily cited sources with the university as saying.