About 130,000 people working in medical facilities in the capital will start a month-long training course this week on coping with possible terrorist attacks during the Olympics, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Training would focus on emergency response and dealing with nuclear, biological or chemical terrorist strikes during the games. The courses would be run by experts from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, according to The Beijing News.

In case of terrorist attacks, health workers will play an important role as they are responsible for emergency first aid, hospital treatment and epidemic prevention, according to experts.

Further, medical institutions hold stocks of potentially poisonous chemical, anesthetic and radioactive materials, as well as highly pathogenic virus samples, which all carry risks of being employed by terrorists.

The Beijing municipal health bureau would evaluate the results of the exercise, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2008)