Police Hong Kong Island Regional Headquarters conducted an inter-departmental major incident exercise codenamed “BROKENPIN” with the Fire Services Department, Hospital Authority, Hong Kong Jockey Club, St. John Ambulance Brigade and Hong Kong Association for Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine at Happy Valley Racecourse this afternoon (November 23). The exercise simulated a large-scale fire incident to enhance the collaboration, emergency response capabilities and efficiency of rescues of Police and stakeholders.
      
     The exercise simulated a fire which broke out at the betting hall, causing multiple casualties on a race day. Officers promptly commenced rescue operation, evacuated the crowds and rendered emergency care to the injured. The rescue team set up a command post and triage station at scene for the injured, which facilitated a timely and orderly rescue operation while bringing the situation until control. The injured were taken to hospitals while other people at the scene were let to a safe area. In addition, the utilisation of drones by Police in the exercise provided the command post with real-time information and thus enhanced the rescue efficiency.
      
     More than 400 officers from the Police Tactical Unit, Emergency Unit of Hong Kong Island, Wan Chai District of Police, Fire Services Department, Hospital Authority, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Hong Kong St. John Ambulance and Hong Kong Association for Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine took part in the exercise. Moreover, Police invited over 200 members of “Senior Police Call” from various districts in Hong Kong Island to take part in the exercise, with a view to increasing public awareness of personal safety and self-protection, as well as further promoting the knowledge of “Run, Hide, Report” and “Spot and Report”.
      
     Through this exercise, Police hope that the public will gain a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities among Police and various departments in handling major incidents. Police will continue to maintain close communication with stakeholders, conduct regular inter-departmental exercises, review contingency plans for major incidents as well as strengthen the coordination between different departments and related organisations.

              

     â€‹Hong Kong Customs yesterday (November 22) mounted an anti-smuggling operation in Lau Fau Shan and detected a suspected smuggling case involving a speedboat. A batch of suspected smuggled goods, with an estimated market value of about $16 million, was seized.

     Customs yesterday conducted an anti-smuggling operation in Lau Fau Shan and spotted several suspicious men on the waterfront moving carton boxes onto a speedboat. Customs officers then took action and the men immediately jumped onto the speedboat and fled to the Mainland waters. A batch of suspected smuggled goods, including mobile phones, computer tablets, dried deer tails, dried bird's nest, suspected scheduled dried totoaba fish maws and suspected scheduled shark fin was seized on the ground nearby.

     An investigation is ongoing. 

     Being a government department specifically responsible for tackling smuggling, Customs has all along been combating various smuggling activities proactively at the forefront. Customs will keep up its enforcement action and continue to fiercely combat sea smuggling activities through proactive risk management and intelligence-based enforcement strategies, along with mounting targeted anti-smuggling operations at suitable times to land a solid blow against relevant activities.

     Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years. 

     Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002/).

          

     The Transport Department (TD) reminded the public today (November 23) that the HKeToll will be implemented in the Tate's Cairn Tunnel from 5am this Sunday (November 26). Motorists can drive through the toll plaza and pay tunnel tolls using the HKeToll without having to stop or queue at toll booths for payments. All manual toll booths and Autotoll lanes will be cancelled.
      
     To tie in with the implementation of the HKeToll, temporary traffic arrangements will be implemented in phases in the vicinity of the Tate's Cairn Tunnel and its slip roads starting from 1am on November 26. Both directions of the Tate's Cairn Tunnel will be closed from 4am to 5am. During the closure of the Tate's Cairn Tunnel, overnight franchised bus route No. 680 (Kam Ying Court – Central (Macau Ferry)) will be diverted via the Lion Rock Tunnel. Please refer to Annex 1 for the temporary traffic and public transport arrangements.
      
     At present, over 810 000 vehicle tags were issued, accounting for more than 99 per cent of the licensed vehicles in Hong Kong. About 92 per cent of vehicles have opened HKeToll accounts, and about 73 per cent of vehicles have set up automatic payment means. With the progressive implementation of the HKeToll in government tolled tunnels, the TD appealed to vehicle owners to complete the three steps for HKeToll service as soon as possible: (1) install a vehicle tag, (2) open an HKeToll account and (3) set up an automatic payment means, so as to fully enjoy the convenience of the HKeToll.
      
     In addition, the TD reminds vehicle owners with outstanding tolls that they must pay them within 14 business days after passing through the tunnels. They can log in to the HKeToll website (hketoll.gov.hk) or mobile app to check and pay the outstanding tolls. Motorists should note that late payments will incur a surcharge of $175, and that the maximum penalty for evading tolls is a fine of $5,000 (per trip), and the license of the vehicle concerned will not be renewed.
      
     If vehicle owners need assistance, they can browse the HKeToll website, call the 24-hour customer service hotline 3853 7333, or visit the four customer service centres, four service outlets, and consultation counters located at designated MTR stations. The locations and service hours of the facilities are shown in Annex 2.
      
     Following the Tate's Cairn Tunnel, the Government plans to implement the HKeToll at the Aberdeen Tunnel in December. Details and exact dates will be announced separately.

  

     In response to the Japanese Government's plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued a Food Safety Order which prohibits all aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds originating from the 10 metropolis/prefectures, namely Tokyo, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, from being imported into and supplied in Hong Kong.
 
     For other Japanese aquatic products, sea salt, and seaweeds that are not prohibited from being imported into Hong Kong, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will conduct comprehensive radiological tests to verify that the radiation levels of these products do not exceed the guideline levels before they are allowed to be supplied in the market.
 
     As the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water is unprecedented and will continue for 30 years or more, the Government will closely monitor and step up the testing arrangements. Should anomalies be detected, the Government does not preclude further tightening the scope of the import ban.
 
     From noon on November 22 to noon today (November 23), the CFS conducted tests on the radiological levels of 197 food samples imported from Japan, which were of the "aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt" category. No sample was found to have exceeded the safety limit. Details can be found on the CFS's thematic website titled "Control Measures on Foods Imported from Japan" (www.cfs.gov.hk/english/programme/programme_rafs/programme_rafs_fc_01_30_Nuclear_Event_and_Food_Safety.html).
 
     In parallel, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has also tested 52 samples of local catch for radiological levels. All the samples passed the tests. Details can be found on the AFCD's website (www.afcd.gov.hk/english/fisheries/Radiological_testing/Radiological_Test.html).
 
     The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) has also enhanced the environmental monitoring of the local waters. No anomaly has been detected so far. For details, please refer to the HKO's website
(www.hko.gov.hk/en/radiation/monitoring/seawater.html).
 
     From August 24 to noon today, the CFS and the AFCD have conducted tests on the radiological levels of 15 974 samples of food imported from Japan (including 10 632 samples of aquatic and related products, seaweeds and sea salt) and 4 512 samples of local catch respectively. All the samples passed the tests.

     â€‹The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (November 23) that in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Noord-Holland Province in the Netherlands and Tønder Municipality in Denmark respectively, the CFS has instructed the trade to suspend the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the above-mentioned areas with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong.

     A CFS spokesman said that according to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong imported about 50 tonnes and about 630 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from the Netherlands and Denmark respectively in the first nine months of this year. 

     "The CFS has contacted the Dutch and Danish authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the WOAH and the relevant authorities on the avian influenza outbreaks. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation," the spokesman said.