A special police cavalry task force has been established in Guangzhou's Baiyun District to tackle street crime in the southern metropolis in the following months.

The police cavalry task force, consisting of more than 100 armed police, has been equipped with advanced police motorcycles and cars.

Defensively, they will have bullet-proof vests, steel helmets and explosion-proof clothes. They will also be given batons, pistols, and machine guns and other advanced weapons.

Commissioned last week, the force will patrol the city's commercial streets, shopping centres, large housing estates and other busy areas where the crime rate is usually high in this provincial capital city, according to a police officer from the Baiyun District Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Public Security yesterday.

"Priority will be given to fighting criminal gangs and organized robbery in local streets," said the officer, Yao Junnan.

It is the first time Guangzhou police has deployed a special cavalry to patrol in the city's major streets.

In a special action late last week, the cavalry force seized five stolen motorcycles and a knife after inspecting 95 motorcycles and two sedans.

The action took place in the Tangjing Area of Guangzhou's Baiyun District between 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm and utilized 40 police motorcycles and five cars.

The police cavalry task force will work with the city's other frontline police to contribute to ensuring social order in the modern metropolis, said Yao.

And Guangzhou police have decided to further strengthen the special police cavalry task force by introducing more advanced police weapons in the following years as it tries to build a force capable of playing an important role in fighting crime in this prosperous but crime-ridden city.

Guangzhou has about 60,000 of Guangdong Province's approximately 150,000 police, the largest police force on the mainland.

Lan Hongying, a local white collar worker, said the establishment of the special cavalry police would surely help deter criminals in the city.

Lan said her bag had been robbed three times in Guangzhou's streets since the beginning of the year.

"Street robbery is still a big public security problem in Guangzhou," Lan told China Daily.

(China Daily October 24, 2006)