Opening its Counterterrorism Center in Taoyuan’s Sinwu District (新屋) yesterday, the National Police Administration (NPA) said the center would usher in a new age of counterterrorism efforts in the nation.
At the ceremony, presided over by Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), center employees conducted their first drill, which simulated a terrorist attack on the Taipei Universiade athletes’ village.
The simulation included bomb attacks, random shooting and hostage-taking, arrival of a counterterrorist taskforce via helicopter and exchange of fire with the “terrorists” and the successful extraction of the hostages, the agency said.
Photo: CNA
The Ministry of the Interior in 2003 authorized construction of the center, but revisions of the plan and difficulty in finding contractors delayed the start of construction until 2015. The center was finally completed last year.
The center includes an administration building, dormitories, a mess hall and training grounds for urban combat, climbing and rappelling, hostage rescues, and general combat training, Yeh said.
The center plans to add facilities for simulated shooting environments, as well as attacks on hijacked planes or mass urban transit cars — complete with models of a plane and MRT car — to round out its training capabilities, the NPA said.
The center is to be the primary training facility for anti-terrorist task forces and peace-keeping units, but would also be available for other units for training, the agency said.
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