Equine security in focus

A plot to fire poison darts at horses at a Hong Kong racecourse was "unwanted and weird" but security would be tight for the 2008 Games, the Beijing Olympics equestrian chief said yesterday.

Hong Kong police are investigating an elaborate device found embedded in the world-famous Happy Valley horse track turf last week. It was apparently designed to shoot poison darts into horses at the start of a race.

Olympic equestrian events were switched from Beijing to Hong Kong because of difficulties in establishing a disease-free zone on the mainland.

"Irrespective of this unwanted and weird incident, we have to take the security standards very seriously for the Olympic Games," Lam Woon-kwong, Hong Kong's Olympic equestrian chief, told reporters.