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24 officers from the New Territories North (NTN), New Territories South, Kowloon East, Hong Kong Island and Police Tactical Unit Headquarters completed the eight-day Rural Functional Training Course held respectively at NTN Regional Headquarters and Civil Aid Service (CAS) Headquarters between April 17 and 26.
The course comprised two parts. The first three days were hosted by Quick Reaction Force (QRF) of NTN, Key Points and Search Division and registered mountain craft coaches, covering professional knowledge such as trail orienteering, use of map and compass, countryside search and key point search. Subsequently, trainees attended the five-day training provided by CAS in mountain search and rescue (SAR) to learn about mountain orienteering, SAR techniques for discharging frontline mountain SAR duties safely and effectively.
Senior Inspector of QRF NTN Leung Yik-cheung, a trainee of the course, said that the unstable weather during the training period strengthened the trainees’ responsiveness in performing SAR duty with extreme weather environment or searching for culprits and evidence in the rural area. In his concluding speech, Senior Operations and Training Officer (Tactical Force) of CAS Mr Man Wai-kong encouraged the trainees to strengthen their knowledge and skills in SAR for conducting operation in mountains safely and effectively. He hoped that the collaboration between CAS, police and other rescue units could be further enhanced when handling mountain SAR operations.
The course deepened the officers’ understanding about mountaineering duties of CAS while the instructors and trainees from different formations also took the opportunity to exchange experiences in mountain search for better synergy in real cases. Upon completion of the course, trainees were awarded with both the Certificate in Mountain SAR Training under the Qualifications Framework Level 3 and Mountain Craft Training Certificate Level 1.
