One such group of officers was the Police Language Helper Team led by Superintendent Peter Donohue and made up of volunteers from around the Force, proficient in speaking Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, French, Spanish and German.

Although not all language helpers were deployed to the frontline, those in greatest demand were the officers who could speak Korean.

Assistant language co-ordinator Senior Inspector Alfred Chow Cheuk-ho said: "In addition to providing a round-the-clock police translation service to our frontline officers, the team was also given the responsibility of supervising over 100 civilian interpreters employed by the MC 6 Co-ordination Office (MCO). They in turn were required to provide an interpretation service after arrest or detention actions, be it in Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Tagalog or Malay. Their services were not only required by operational policing units but also by other government departments."

Mr Donohue commented: "The civilian interpreters complemented the police language team's effort perfectly and I was impressed with their dedication to a pretty rigorous duty schedule. It was a great team effort and a rewarding experience for both sides."

At the conclusion of HKMC, the civilian interpreters made a presentation to the police team and thanked them for looking after their security and welfare at every juncture. One of the civilian interpreters quipped that she was looking forward to a reunion at MC7.

The Police Language Team say farewell to MCO's civilian interpreters