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UK cops used 'dum dums'
16/11/2005 14:53 - (SA)
London - A Brazilian man shot by British police in July in the mistaken belief that he was a terrorist was killed with a type of bullet banned in warfare under international convention, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The firing of hollow point ammunition into the head of Jean Charles de Menezes, at a London Underground station on July 22, was believed to have been the first use of the bullets by British police, the report said.
The shooting of de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, has strained relations between Britain and Brazil and led to calls for London police chief Ian Blair to resign.
During the incident, two weeks after the suicide attacks on London's transport system in which 52 people died, de Menezes was pursued on to the station platform by police and shot seven times in the head.
The Telegraph said so-called hollow-point bullets are used at the discretion of police chiefs. They expand and splinter on impact.
The bullets are descendants of the expanding "dum dum" ammunition created by the British in an arsenal of the same name near Calcutta, in India, at the end of the 19th century and outlawed under the Hague Declaration of 1899.
Their issue was sanctioned after research suggested that they were an effective close-quarters ammunition for use against someone about to trigger a suicide bomb.
The shooting of de Menezes is currently under investigation by Britain's Independent Police Complaints Commission. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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