Policeman badly hurt in theft probe

Apr 11 2009

A police officer is critically ill in hospital after suffering "life-threatening head injuries" in an incident involving burglary suspects.

Police were called in the early hours of Saturday to reports of an aggravated burglary in Dagenham, east London, Scotland Yard said.

The suspects escaped the scene in a silver Chrysler, which failed to stop for officers in an armed response vehicle in Stratford town centre.

Police followed the vehicle in the direction of Leytonstone High Road and a male suspect made off on foot when it stopped briefly.

Shortly afterwards, the Chrysler was stopped in Ashlin Road, Newham.

It was then that an officer in his thirties left the armed response vehicle and sustained serious head injuries.

It is not yet clear how the officer - a member of the Met Police's CO19 firearms unit - was injured, but a Scotland Yard spokesman said he had not been shot or stabbed.