The photo, taken on May 13, 2014, shows an Emergency Unit officer equipped with a pistol in Shanghai. [Photo: Xinmin.com/Shen Wenlin]

Shanghai has set up its first professional emergency unit (EU), which started to patrol the streets on Tuesday as the city beefs up its security measures for next week's Asian regional summit, Shanghai-based news website Xinmin.com reports.

The unit is divided into 15 groups, with each group consisting of 10 police officers and a special police vehicle.

"In order to deal with different kinds of emergencies, the 10 police officers in each group include traffic police officers, policewomen, criminal police officers and a plainclothes policeman. All of them are under 50 years old," said Han Zhengdong, a police officer in charge of one of the 15 units.

Each car is equipped with two police pistols, and every officer has nearly 20 pieces of equipment, including a helmet, riot shields and night sticks or batons.

A camera on the car and a helmet with 4G transmission capabilities can send real-time pictures back to the command center as soon as officers arrive at the spot.

Han told a Xinmin.com reporter that all the officers have finished a two-week training course about how to use this equipment and deal with emergencies before joining the unit.

Zhu Yuhai, commanding officer of the Huangpu public security substation, pointed out that the newly-formed Emergency Unit is deployed directly by the substation command center, which enables them to act quicker compared to traditional ways of dealing with police alarms. They can also support the current patrol policemen and special policemen.

The emergency unit will patrol in crowded areas, carrying out security checks. They will also be on response to deal with terrorist attacks and emergencies in the city.

According to the city's police department, 125 SWAT teams have been set up and 117 local police stations in downtown areas have been equipped with GPS patrol cars.