City’s subway safe from gas, nuclear attack (4)

The gates have been installed in other subway systems in China.

Jiang Hao, an engineer from the 4th Engineer Design & Research Institute of General Staff Department, said that the gates for civil defense have already been used in the subway in cities like Nanjing in Jiangsu Province and Shenyang in Liaoning Province.

"The new facilities also have other defensive capabilities like emergency communication equipment at each station, which makes effective communication possible during a conflict," Jiang said at the conference.

Although subway systems in China have not been subject to terrorist attack or other emergencies, subways in other countries have been attacked.

In Tokyo in 1995, an attack by the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo cult killed 13 and sickened 6,300, after the highly toxic sarin nerve gas was released into the subway at rush hour, reported the Japan Times in 2010.

On July 7, 2005, terrorists set off bombs on three London underground lines and one on a public bus, killing 52 and injuring over 700 commuters, according to the BBC in July, 2005.