Suspected car thief arrested after running over police officer in patrol vehicle in Birmingham
Incident comes just days after another officer was left with head and hand injuries after challenging suspect allegedly armed with machete in east London
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A police officer has been seriously injured after being run over by a suspected car thief in Birmingham.
West Midlands Police said the traffic cop was in Moorcroft Road, Moseley, at 4.45pm having traced a suspected stolen Range Rover Sport taken just minutes earlier from a woman on a shopping trip.
The officer was violently assaulted and punched to the floor as he went to arrest the man, before being run over by the suspect as he jumped into the patrol vehicle.
The suspect fled in the squad car, driving for around a mile before abandoning the vehicle before attempting to steal another.
However, he was corned by officers – including armed police – and Tasered before being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The force said the officer is being treated in hospital for head and pelvic injuries.
Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Boycott said: “This is a shocking attack in which a member of our police family has been seriously hurt while trying to detain a crime suspect.
“I’m heading to the hospital now to get an update on his condition and offer whatever support I can to him and his family.
“Attacks on our officers and staff won’t be tolerated and we will always seek the toughest possible criminal justice outcome for offenders.”
Eyewitness Sohail Razaque said he was driving up to the junction of Ladypool Road when a police car came past him on sirens and collided with another vehicle up ahead.
Mr Razaque, a manager at Birmingham-based BMV Solicitors, said: "There was one car ahead of me and we pulled over to let police come past, and there were lots of sirens and a police helicopter.
"The police car went past, got into the junction and then hit another car and skidded, and it turned round and went back a few dozen metres.
"There was some confusion up ahead then, and I stayed in the car.
"But while we were stopped I saw a man in a white shirt and red trousers, and he was trying to get into what looked like a white Nissan car.
"He half got in it, then got back out again and then he tried to get through some metal shutters that looked like it was a shop at the roadside.
"By then the police were already following him trying to get him to stop, shouting at him to get down.
"But he didn't and continued further up on a junction of Ladypool Road."
Mr Razaque, 48, from Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, added: "The officers there were on their radios and saying 'its' the guy in the coloured trousers' and they saw him trying to get in the car.
"It all happened pretty quickly. There were about 40 police, a lot of them armed , some had Tasers, some had guns.
"He was sort of almost walking through the crowds, with the officers following - and that's where they Tasered him and took him down.
"There was about four or five officers on top of him and then about five minutes later, they had him up, and walked him past me and put him in a police car."
The incident comes just days after Metropolitan Police officer Stuart Outten was left with head and hand injuries after challenging a motor offences suspect allegedly armed with a machete in east London.
Muhammad Rodwan, 56, has been charged with the attempted murder of Pc Outten, 28, and possession of an offensive weapon following the incident in Leyton just after midnight on Thursday.
Additional reporting by Press Association