Anti-terrorist squad heads for Olympics

By SCOTT INGLIS

Heavily armed police from New Zealand's elite special tactics group will help Australian police to protect the Sydney Olympics from terrorists.

Twenty-six group members will be sworn in as special constables of the New South Wales police force and work with its tactics team, the state protection group.

The New Zealanders will leave on August 28 for what will be Australia's largest security operation.

The elite police staff, from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, volunteered for the Olympics assignment - the first overseas job for the special tactics group - and they will be based at three sites around Sydney.

The police national operations manager, Superintendent Neville Matthews, said enough members would remain in NZ during the Olympics to cope with any emergencies and the 26 in Sydney could always return if needed urgently.

The special tactics group is the country's foremost anti-terrorist police squad, made up of armed offenders squad members.

Its members, tactics and weapons are secret.

The group guarded world leaders during the Apec summit in Auckland last year.

It has been used in special operations such as the hunt for escaped prisoners in the Coromandel area in 1998.

Mr Matthews said the special tactics group often trained with Australian security groups and the Olympics stint would reinforce that relationship.