TheOlympic Forest Park will serve as an emergency shelter for audience and players of the Olympic Games, should a natural disaster or terrorist attack hit the city, an official source said on Saturday.

The 680-hectare park provides a large expanse of open areas for people to take shelter from disasters and has an efficient communication system, according to the source with the Beijing Olympic organizing committee's public area management department.

The organizing committee has prepared 300 sleeping bags and 50 "huge" tents, said the official who declined to be named.

The park, the largest in Beijing and home to three Olympic venues including the Olympic Green Archery Field, the Olympic Green Tennis Center, and the Olympic Green Hockey Stadium, is expected to house a maximum of 100,000 people during the Games.

In cases of disasters like earthquakes, the Olympic venues themselves can also be used as emergency refuges, according to the source.

Over 1,000 security personnel with 150 sniffer dogs over the past few days have been engaging in safety checks in the park, which is closed to public from July 5 to August 9, he said.

The park will continue to serve as a emergency shelter for Beijing residents after the Games.

Beijing now has about 30 emergency shelters, and the city is planning to build more over the next few years to ensure that residents will spend no more than 10 minutes to reach the nearest shelter on foot.

The Yuandadu Park, one of the closest shelters to the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest on the Olympic Green, can shelter up to 253,000 people.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2008)