Shanghai needs to build more emergency exits in subway tunnels, an expert in underground development said yesterday.

"We have to do many things to ensure subway safety," Peng Fangle, deputy director of the Geotechnical Engineering Department of Tongji University, said at an underground forum yesterday.

He said for architectural reasons, subway facilities in general can resist earthquakes far better than above ground constructions.

However, the city needs to fortify the subway with better safety equipment and to improve reactive management if a subway is hit by fire or floods, he told reporters.

In a speech entitled "The consequence of subway fire and emergency measures," Peng listed recent subway accidents around the world and proposed a series of fire-prevention rules for subway managers.

He said the city's subway authority should consider building more emergency connections between subway tunnels and it should install powerful ventilation fans to extract fumes if there is a fire. He also suggested subway managers adopt an efficient emergency system to respond to fires should a fire break out between stations.

Other safety measures he suggested included more manned patrols, the use of more insulation materials in construction and regular safety education programs for citizens.

Researchers with the Shanghai Tunnel Engineering & Rail Transit Design and Research Institute said that the city's future subway lines will have more escape exits between stations.

Institute researchers have designed most of the city's subway tunnels.

Yu Jiakang, chief architect with the institute, told an earlier conference that emergency exits must be built within subway tunnels to make it possible for passengers to escape fires. He said not all of the city's current subway lines have the facilities.