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Operations Wing and the Inter-departmental Counter Terrorism Unit (ICTU) co-organised a counter-terrorism (CT) exercise codenamed “IRONWILL” at the Hong Kong International Airport in the small hours on April 23.
About 200 police officers participated in the exercise. ICTU’s other member departments including the Customs and Excise Department, the Correctional Services Department, the Fire Services Department (FSD), the Government Flying Service and the Immigration Department also conducted a series of internal exercises in the two weeks prior to the inter-departmental exercise to test and enhance the departmental CT response and intelligence capabilities.
Speaking to the media prior to the exercise, Acting Senior Superintendent of ICTU Leung Wai-ki stated that the global terrorism landscape remained complex and ever-changing in recent years. He added that while some extreme terrorist groups still launched attacks around the world, some overseas radicals capitalised on controversial issues to legitimise the use of extreme violence to advance their political or ideological causes, posing security threats to those places.
The exercise comprised two separate scenarios. The first scenario simulated the discovery of a suspicious object at the airport terminal, while the second scenario demonstrated an operation against a terrorist cell with its members conducting knife attacks, taking hostages and threatening to detonate a bomb at the terminal.
Two public education messages were delivered in this exercise. The first message was about “Stay Vigilant to Bomb”, which served to enhance citizens’ alertness against suspicious objects and explosives, and educate the public, particularly the security and property management sector, how to identify and properly handle suspicious objects. The second message was about the safety advisory of “Run, Hide, Report”, which reminded the citizens of the proper response in the event of a terrorist attack.
The “IRONWILL” exercise showcased the co-ordination and response capabilities among various police units and relevant stakeholders, including the Airport Security Unit, the Special Duties Unit, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau, the Police Negotiation Cadre, the Ambulance Command of FSD, the Airport Authority Hong Kong and the Aviation Security Company Limited, in response to a terrorist incident. Police will continue to step up CT effort and strengthen Hong Kong’s CT deployment and capability, so as to guard against the breeding of domestic terrorism.
Please visit the following link to watch the video of the exercise：（https://www.facebook.com/HongKongPoliceForce/videos/1033350747071506/）.
