Police snipers have been deployed at four railway stations -- Beijing Railway, Beijing South, Beijing North and Beijing West -- since Thursday, to step up security for the annual summer travel rush, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

The snipers come from "the iron eagle squad," a special police team established by the city's railway public security bureau in March.

Each patrol team has a sniper who can shoot a target within 1,000 meters, using a QBU-88 sniper rifle, the newest generation of Chinese small arms.

All members of the squad can take out their guns and shoot within 1.5 seconds, as well as hit a target from seven to 15 meters with the first bullet, said Wang Chaokun, an officer in the squad.

"We are also trained in rotation every month to handle emergencies in narrow train carriages," he added.

Besides explosion-proof devices, the railway public security bureau has also outfitted their patrol officers with a type of gun that fire nets instead of bullets.