Li Hao

    Shenzhen Police flexed their muscles in all sorts of ways on the annual Police Open Day yesterday, attracting more than 80,000 citizens.

    Officers displayed a variety of skills and advanced equipment at the police training school on Qiaocheng Road East in Futian District.

    Standing in an orderly formation, an 80-member police team from Bao’an security bureau performed Chinese boxing, hand-to-hand combat and wushu.

    Residents cheered and clapped in response to the demonstrations.

    Most spectators sat on the ground to be close to the performing police.

    The applause gained momentum when five policemen from Futian security bureau each used a spear to hold up an officer, who suffered no injuries owing to his use of Chinese qigong.

    For Wang Yu, a 28-year-old resident who took part in the police open day last year, the highlight of this year was the “perfect and effective” cooperation by police in dealing with a mock bus hostage situation.

    In the mock crisis, a bus was hijacked by several kidnappers. Responding quickly, police sent in special vehicles and a helicopter loaded with snipers.

    After the kidnappers refused to negotiate, police used a special device to blow out two windows of the bus, breaking into it and subduing the kidnappers.

    “It’s cool as the whole process just took several minutes. It shows the police have been well trained,” Wang said.

    Following the arrest of the kidnappers, a robot was sent onto the bus to find and detonate a bomb.

    In addition to the officers, police dogs received cheers from the visitors, displaying skills like sniffing for drugs and explosives and leaping over barriers.

    “The number of serious criminal cases in the first 10 months of this year dropped 19.5 percent compared with the same period last year, which shows the city’s security has improved,” said Li Ming, the head of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau.

    After the performances, people were invited to handle the advanced equipment used by police.

    To encourage residents to participate, police for the first time opened subvenues of the open day in every subdistrict in the city.