Headline of the Week: Snipers Protect Beijing Railway Stations

Summer travel usually involves beach balls, sunscreen, a hat, sunglasses, a cool, refreshing beverage to enjoy. Apparently this year, it also means deploying snipers at Beijing's railway stations.

It's unclear whether China Daily and other Chinese state media outlets are mistaking the phrase "marksmen" for "snipers," as the description of the specially-armed "Iron Eagle" Squad police includes both armed personnel who will patrol Beijing's four main train stations, along with actual snipers who can hit targets a distances of 1,000 meters, China Daily wrote.

"All members of the squad can take out their guns and shoot within 1.5 seconds, as well as hit a target from seven to 15 meters with the first bullet," one officer said. Wow.

It was a bit of news to us that the Iron Eagle Squad was formed in March to deal with security in and around train stations and on the trains themselves.

"Besides explosion-proof devices, the railway public security bureau has also outfitted their patrol officers with a type of gun that fire nets instead of bullets," the report said. Cool. Sounds very Spiderman to us. We jest, but given the number of violent incidents at railway stations around the country recently, we're grateful that security has been beefed up.

Photo: gtaall.com