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Shanghai tightens security at stations ahead of Olympics

China’s largest city and the host of a dozen Olympic soccer matches started tightening security over the weekend at airports and train stations, reports in state-run media said yesterday.

Surveillance systems were also being installed on Shanghai’s subway trains, a report said.

The measures go along with increased security in Beijing, where the Olympic Games will begin on Aug. 8. The Chinese government is worried about foreign terrorist plots as well as political protests from domestic critics such as Uighurs in the restive western province of Xinjiang and Tibetans.

Bags at Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao airports were being searched at entrances to terminals for explosive, flammable, biochemical or radioactive materials, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported.

The newspaper said passengers at Shanghai South Railway Station would go through a luggage check before entering the station, and only passengers were allowed on the platforms.

Work to install surveillance systems on every subway train has started, but wasn’t not clear how long the work would take, Shao Weizhong (邵偉中), a deputy manager of Shanghai Metro Operation Co, told the Shanghai Daily.

Further anti-terrorism measures would include making emergency lamps and gas masks available at all subway stations and training staff for a possible attack, the newspaper reported on Sunday.

Shanghai would host nine men’s soccer matches and three women’s matches, and more than 440,000 tickets have been sold so far, Vice Mayor Zhao Wen (趙雯) told the state-run Xinhua news agency in a report on Sunday.


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