Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Sports Park tests emergency preparedness with drill involving 5,000 people

An emergency rescue drill was held at the Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground on Saturday, where a man fell down the stairs and screamed in pain, with responders stepping in to treat him.

The staged sequence was part of a five-hour stress test involving 5,000 people at the new stadium.

In less than a minute, three medical personnel rushed to treat the man, wrapping his leg with bandages and applying an ice pack before an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital.

Security Minister Chris Tang Ping-keung said on Saturday that the rapid implementation of the drills demonstrated the effectiveness of emergency response teams in dealing with various security stressors. The whole process took only 15 minutes.

This is the third exercise conducted at the facility, covering crowd entry and exit, security checks and emergency response.

Chief inspector Lam Mak-ham, who is in charge of the police’s key points and search section in the major incidents bureau, said the main purpose of the exercise was to test “coordination and cooperation” between different departments.