Police have reported that another large-scale stress test, held tonight with 50,000 spectators attending the Hong Kong Premier League U22 football match, ran smoothly at Kai Tak Sports Park's Main Stadium.

The exercise was conducted to assess the operational readiness of the Main Stadium and its surrounding facilities for sports events with maximum attendance.

Similar to the previous large-scale stress tests, the drill was co-ordinated by the force's Exercise Team, covering five major testing and evaluation areas: security screening and ticket checks; venue signage and designated seating arrangements; inter-agency co-ordination in response to emergencies; various crowd management measures; and passenger flow management by public transport operators.

During the exercise, the Fire Services Department simulated two fire incidents of varying scales, aiming to test the communication and response capabilities of Fire Services personnel in co-ordination with Police, venue security and other emergency response teams. Police also simulated an emergency incident involving public safety and security to test the response of all stakeholders.

The stress test was scheduled for a weekday evening, with a slight overlap between the entry time and rush hour after work. Meanwhile, the exercise concluded at a later time, with most participants choosing to leave the park immediately afterwards, thereby increasing the pressure on the transport system.

Police implemented new crowd management measures, such as using large display panels along the exit routes to MTR stations to convey crowd management information, playing music and deploying police officers to provide real-time information on the spot to help participants leave safely.

In the exercise, the public transport system and surrounding facilities were able to divert the large passenger flows within a short period of time, allowing participants to enter and leave the venue in an orderly manner.

The Main Stadium's retractable roof was opened for the first time during the stress test, aligning the testing time and mode more closely to the actual conditions of sports events, and the volume of noise during the test was found to be within the acceptable sound level.

A total of 50,000 civil servants, government employees and members of community groups simulated crowd flows during the test.