U.K. officer shot dead at police station

LONDON• A London police officer was fatally shot Friday morning inside a police station, the London Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The officer was killed by a man who had been arrested and was being detained at a custody centre in Croydon, a neighbourhood in south London, police said. The officer was treated at the scene and later died at a hospital.

A 23- year- old man was detained at the scene. Police said that the “early indications” were that he turned the gun on himself. He is in a hospital in critical condition.

The police said no police firearms were fired during the incident, prompting questions about whether the suspect was properly searched at the time of his arrest.

The police officer in Croydon is the 17 th officer from the London Metropolitan Police to be killed by a f irearm since the Second World War, according to the BBC.

The last time a police officer was killed by a firearm

We owe a huge debt to those who risk their own lives to keep us safe.

in the United Kingdom was 2012. Criminologists say that the lower rates of police fatalities in the U. K ., compared to the United States, are in part due to the lower rates of gun ownership.

British Prime Min ister Boris Johnson offered his condolences to the officer’s family, friends and colleagues. “We owe a huge debt to those who risk their own lives to keep us safe,” he said.

Cressida Dick, London Metropolitan Police commissioner, called the shooting shocking.

“When a colleague dies in the line of duty, the shock waves and sadness reverberates throughout the Met and our communities,” Dick said. “Policing is a family, within London and nationally, and we will all deeply mourn our colleague.”

A murder investigation is underway, she said, adding that officers were working at “several crime scenes to secure evidence and establish the facts of what happened.”

The Independent Office for Police Conduct, a police watchdog, will oversee the investigation into the circumstances of the death.

“Tragic incidents like this are terrible reminders of the dangers our police officers face every single day they go into work to keep Londoners safe,” said London Mayor Sadiq Khan.