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Police learn how to drive for Games

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-29 15:15

Beijing police will be sent back to driving school in readiness for the Olympics and some will get hotted up cars and racing training, state media said on Monday.

By the end of next year, 10,000 police will be given driving safety training, with 1,500 to learn high-speed manoeuvres to complement their customised cars, the Beijing Times said.

"In accordance with Olympic security needs, some police cars will be customised -- especially those patrolling areas around Olympic venues," the Beijing Times quoted a police academy official as saying.

"The (cars) will have anti-rolling capability, racing seats and other safety systems," the official said.

Recruitment for racing training would start next month, the paper said, with police to be tested on their cornering and high-speed skills in a simulated racing environment.

Successful recruits will then be taught the art of "driving down narrow roads, overtaking, intercepting cars and high speed u-turns", the paper said.

Keen to show it can host a world class event and protect the safety of the hundreds of thousands expected to attend, Beijing has already taken a number of measures to boost security.

Earlier in the month, China announced plans to build a 50,000-strong civil security force in addition to the recruitment of 2,000 extra police reported in March.

The communist country is on alert for domestic sources of unrest that could disrupt the Games, from angry petitioners from the countryside to activists seeking independence for Tibet