China's first anti-terror trucks, equipped with state-of-the-art bullet-proof steel planks and weaponry, will be delivered to police in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shandong Province within a year.

Police have ordered 100 domestically-built anti-terror vehicles priced at 600,000 yuan (US$74,000) to 700,000 yuan (US$86,000) each.

The vehicles made a debut last Friday in the coastal city of Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province. The city bought three of such vehicles for its police.

The new vehicle can help provide a place to store food and equipment for a large number of police joining in anti-terrorism operations, said Zhang Wanjin, manager for Shandong Area of Chongqing Isuzu Motors, one of the vehicle's manufacturers.

The vehicle has a storage tank for food and drink, and can sustain 80 people to live and work in it for six days. It also has a conference room for 10, and could automatically lift two 7-metre-long steel planks on both sides of its bodywork, offering easy exit and entry.

The cabinets inside that keep armed equipment in different cases could help anti-terrorism combatants grab their gear and quickly get into action, a leading officer from the Qingdao Public Security Bureau told the Chongqing Economic Times newspaper.

For its debut, 10-odd armed police quickly entered the gates on both sides of the truck from ladders, taking gas masks and bullet-proof shields before jumping off and swinging into action all within one minute, Zhang said.

Coming out of the assembly line early last month, the three trucks one 9.6 metres long, and the other two 7.2 metres were not included in the 100 ordered autos, he said.

The truck was designed and produced by Chongqing Isuzu Motors Co Ltd in Southwest China, Qingdao Subsidiary of Chongqing Isuzu Motors and the Qingdao police authority.

Experts said the truck, designed last August, is advanced in the world in terms of security and reliability.

Zhang told China Daily that the 100 new vehicles will have different equipment for various purposes.

For example, a vehicle ordered by Jining Public Security Bureau in Shandong will be equipped with a telecommunication system, he said.

Some carry huge price tags. A vehicle ordered by the Laoshan Public Security Bureau in Shandong with a GPS system is valued at 3 million yuan (US$369,900), he said.

The Ministry of Public Security will organize an anti-terror vehicle performance in Beijing this month to showcase the new vehicles, Zhang said.

(China Daily December 2, 2005)