Media Update - AAP Beijing 14 December 2008

CHINA'S capital has carried out anti-terrorist drills to ward off an attack similar to the deadly assault on India's financial centre of Mumbai late last month, state press said.

The Beijing Special Armed Police Unit engaged on Saturday in a mock hostage rescue at a hotel using a helicopter, special anti-terrorist vehicles and a wide array of weapons, Xinhua news agency said.

"The drill was aimed at preventing terrorist attacks, especially after the Mumbai attack which had definite targets and a careful plan,'' it quoted Xiao Yong, head of Beijing's anti-terrorist unit, as saying.

"We noticed that the terrorists attacked different sites of the city in different ways.''

The exercises were the first anti-terrorism training in the capital since the August Beijing Olympics, state press reports said.

China's police chief Meng Jianzhu last week said the fight against terrorism needed to be "serious.''

Meng said that the main terrorist threat facing China remained from ethnic Muslim Uighurs seeking to establish an independent ``East Turkestan'' in China's westernmost region of Xinjiang.

International Operations Group thanks www.news.com.au for this article. The original post can be found here - http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24797969-23109,00.html.