Raoul Moat: Stun gun use sparks controversy

TASER stun guns, which were first trialled in England and Wales in 2003, are known for causing uncontrollable muscle spasms and have been linked to several high-profile incidents.

Despite protests from human rights organisations, Strathclyde Police began a three-month trial in February involving 30 officers in Glasgow and South Lanarkshire.

At the time, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott said the introduction of the weapons, which deliver a 50,000-volt charge to the suspect, was a "slippery slope" towards Tasers being widely used. The trial in Scotland followed an announcement in 2008 by Jacqui Smith, then home secretary, that police would be armed with 10,000 Taser weapons at a cost of 8 million, and 30,000 front-line officers would be trained in firing the electric guns.

A Taser was successfully used against a fugitive suicide bomber who was captured in Birmingham after the failed July 2005 suicide attacks. However, an investigation was launched in April after a man in Manchester was Tasered by police as he suffered an epileptic fit.

Fears have been raised that using a stun gun on a suspect with their finger on a weapon trigger could cause them to discharge the weapon due to the muscle spasms it can cause. In 2005 Dr William Bozeman, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, said the chance of dying after being shot with a Taser is one in 870.

The most common type of Taser used by police in the UK is the X26. The handgun- shaped weapon has a range of up to 7.6 metres.

The Taser gun uses compressed air to fire two darts that trail electric cables back to the handset, subjects the victim to a five-second charge.

The electrical signals, Taser waves, overpower the body's normal electrical signals and temporarily confuse the nervous system.