Passengers evacuate the Straits during its first drill on Nov 7 in Fujian's Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone.

A rescue ship saves passengers during the drill on the Straits, the first direct commercial ship between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

On Nov 7, a maritime search and rescue drill was held on the Straits ship in Pingtan. The Straits, or Haixia, is the first direct high-speed commercial ship between Pingtan on the mainland and Taiwan.

The drill was jointly organized by the Fuzhou Maritime Search & Rescue Center, Fuzhou Maritime Bureau, and Fujian Haixia High-Speed Passenger RORO Shipping Company. The drill practiced activities in areas such as maritime emergency response, ship fire fighting, passenger evacuation, and victim search and rescue.

According to Guo Weimin, director of the Fuzhou Maritime Search & Rescue Center and drill commander-in-chief, as part of the exercise a fire on the ship was put out and victims were rescued within 30 minutes.

The Fuzhou Maritime Search & Rescue Center and Fujian Haixia High-Speed Passenger RORO Shipping Company signed a maritime search and rescue cooperation agreement last October to set up a cooperative search and rescue mechanism. This was the first drill held on the Straits.

"We will make full use of vessel traffic services (VTS) at Fuzhou Port. With 24-hour dynamic supervision of the Straits' route, we will spare no efforts to secure the ship's travel across the Straits," said Liu Bisheng, director of the command center of the Fuzhou Maritime Bureau.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Michael Thai