Psychological pressure faced by squad members makes difficult job even harder

The 20 divers of Beijing's underwater police squad patrol the dark, cold waters of the capital, conducting security checks and searching for submerged evidence, including weapons, bodies and body parts.

The squad, originally trained by the Chinese Navy, was the first of its kind in China when it was launched in 1984 as a five-man unit to conduct security inspections for the National Day military parade. It is now a detachment of the Beijing Public Security Bureau's counterterrorism and SWAT department.