A man is in hospital in a critical condition after he was Tasered by police in London and had to be rescued from the River Thames.
Police, who are being investigated after the incident, said they were called just after 9am on Saturday to reports of a man with a screwdriver shouting in Chelsea Bridge Road.
When officers arrived shortly after, the Metropolitan police said they challenged a man on Chelsea Bridge and discharged a Taser but were unable to detain him safely.
The man, believed to be in his 40s, “subsequently entered the river”, police said, and was rescued by the RNLI who took him to hospital where his condition was assessed as critical. Police said they are still trying to contact the man’s family.
The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards is investigating the incident and it has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
DCI Rory Wilkinson, from the Met’s Central West BCU, said the man is “extremely unwell in hospital” and that a full investigation is under way.
“My thoughts are with this man, who is extremely unwell in hospital. Officers are making every effort to make contact with his family,” he said.
“I understand that there are always concerns about incidents in which people come to harm having been in contact with police. All Met officers know that they are accountable for their actions, and a full investigation is under way to establish exactly what happened.”
An IOPC spokesperson said: “We have been made aware by the Met police service of an incident on Chelsea Bridge this morning. An independent investigation is under way. Investigators have been deployed to their post-incident procedure and the scene.”
