Passengers are "saved" from a subway tunnel during an emergency drill on Saturday. [ Cheng Gong / for China Daily]

Middle- and large-scale shopping malls are being encouraged to run bomb drills ahead of the May Day holiday by the city's police force.

The suggestion follows a drill undertaken in Sogo shopping mall at Xuanwu district on April 2, according to Beijing Times.

"After the Moscow subway blasts, we are paying closer attention to any potential explosive attacks in public places," said a police officer surnamed Yang from a local bureau office in Xuanwu district.

"If something happens, we want to cope with it quickly and effectively," he said.

Guo Zengli, director of the information center of the China shopping center industry, told METRO malls larger than 10,000 sq m are classed as "middle to large scale malls". He added there were more than 300 such malls in Beijing by the end of 2009.

Guo noted that Beijing carried out far fewer bomb drills than Shanghai and Shenzhen.

"Malls in Beijing need to catch up," he said.

During the May Day holidays, malls see an exponential increase in visitors.

"A couple of years ago, a shopping mall in Beijing received a call from a man who claimed there would be blasts. It later turned out to be a prank," said Hu Liangjie, security manager of Sogo shopping mall.

"Even so, it still alerted us of the necessity of bomb drills," he said.

According to Hu, the recent Sogo drill was the first time that police officers from the municipal public security bureau were involved. Hu said more than 30 police officers from the city and Xuanwu district public security bureaus took part, as well as 400 members of staff from the mall.

"The situation we played out was that a suspect had left a bag that might contain explosives," said a woman from the first floor reception desk.

"Our duty was to lead the customers to safety while the police kept order inside the mall and quickly removed the bag," she said.

The whole drill lasted only 15 minutes, Hu said.

Joy City mall in Xidan and Yansha mall in Liangmaqiao, said they would hold similar drills before the holiday.

To create a safe environment during the holiday, at least 80 percent of mall security workers are required to be on duty, according to 2008 regulations. Entertainment centers must also hold anti-terrorism and counter-explosive evacuation drills at least once a quarter, Beijing police said Saturday.

Qian Jin, vice-head of the Security Administration Corps of the city's police force, said they would enhance the security level of entertainment hot spots.

"Large-scale entertainment places will even be equipped with bombproof security doors," he said.

A spokesman surnamed Zhang from The Same Song KTV club, told METRO they have established safety evacuation drills in all five of their locations in Beijing.

"On the first Tuesday of every month we hold a drill. The 12 safety guards in each store have received relevant training," he said.

Police said they would perform random spot checks at entertainment places to test response times.

Drills also took place at Fuxingwen subway station Saturday morning. According to the city subway company, all eight lines in operation will run safety drills every month.