Policemen in the south China city of Guangzhou are being trained to use horses in preparation for the force's mounted police squad.

A squad of 30 officers and 10 horses is being trained and yesterday they staged a drill with officers posing as rioters, Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

One mounted police officer is more effective than 10 policemen on foot when trying to disperse protesters, according to the report, because horses can be an enormous deterrent.

"I felt afraid when looking at these 500-kilogram horses running towards me," one officer posing as a rioter told the newspaper.

However, a mounted police force has not yet won official approval so the training is still an experiment, according to a horse trainer.

Mounted police are used in more than 20 countries including Britain, the United States, and Canada, and as well as in some Chinese cities.

(Shanghai Daily September 16, 2009)