Beijing security guards assigned to Olympic Games duties will undergo training in self-defence, first aid, emergencies procedures, protocol and languages, a source with the Games security company said on Sunday.

 

"We have selected about 1,000 of the 5,000-strong team of qualified guards to receive the intense training," said an official, who only gave his surname as Chen, of the Dongcheng Division of the Beijing Security Guard Service Company.

 

The company, run by the city's police bureau, will help police during the 2008 Olympics and has asked all of its 30 divisions to select guards for Olympic duty.

 

Chen said the Dongcheng division was the first in the capital to announce training plans and many more would soon follow suit.

 

The Beijing Olympics preparation authorities said at least 100,000 professional security guards, recruited across China, along with many more volunteers would be deployed to ensure a "safe Olympics".

 

Chen said the guards would have to take intense training in wrestling, patrol, emergencies procedures -- such as how to deal with bomb threats -- and the company would hire tutors to teach protocol and foreign languages.

 

"The focus will be on spoken English, especially the most commonly-used terms like how to properly say 'Hello'," he said.

 

Chen said the police would also help organize check-point inspection training, as that is expected to be a major part of the work of security guards during the Olympics.

 

China has more than 2,300 private security guard service companies with 1.1 million staff.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2007)