In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, operators of the Taipei Joint Bus System and the Taipei City Government’s Police Department on Friday next week are to stage an antiterrorism drill simulating an attack on the bus system, an operator said yesterday.
The drill is to include practice calming passengers, negotiating with terrorists and carrying out a counterterrorism raid, Metropolitan Transport Corp head Hung Tsang-lang (洪滄浪) said.
The aim is to train police and other personnel, and increase public awareness of possible terrorism, Hung said.
The drill is gaining extra attention amid fears that Taiwan could become a target of the Islamic State after the national flag appeared in a propaganda video made by the group.
The flag was among the banners of 60 other nations that appeared in the video and was displayed next to the US flag.
Awareness of antiterrorism measures in Taiwan was heightened after US President Barack Obama named Taiwan as part of an Asia-Pacific coalition against the Islamic State during the ASEAN East Asia summit in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 22.
Hung said that bus companies in Taipei have regularly staged such drills over the past few years.
The preparatory work for this year’s drill started four months ago, prior to the terrorist attacks in Paris last month, Hung said.
The drill is set to be staged at a station in Neihu District (內湖), with the participation of about 60 people, including more than 20 special forces personnel.
Buses, firefighting vehicles, ambulances and police vehicles are to be deployed for the drill, Hung said.
Specialized weapons will be carried during the drill, Hung added.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday said the city “does not tolerate violence” after the Taipei City Council reported death threats over a planned screening today of a documentary on alleged forced organ harvesting in China. The council’s report follows a flurry of similar threats targeting theaters and institutions screening the documentary, titled State Organs, which accuses Chinese officials of harvesting organs from incarcerated dissidents and Falun Gong members. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors who planned to screen the film told a news conference earlier yesterday that the organizers of the screening had received a threat of a knife attack signed
RSS