British police probed over fugitive manhunt

Police were under investigation yesterday after one of Britain's biggest ever manhunts ended in two officers firing stun guns at fugitive Raoul Moat and the wanted man shooting himself dead.

As the picturesque village of Rothbury in northeast England tried to return to normality after a week-long manhunt ended dramatically there, questions were asked about how Mr Moat managed to evade a search by hundreds of police.

One theory is that he hid in a storm drain next to the river in the village, meaning police were literally passing over his head on their patrols for days. The probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission is expected to focus on whether the firing of the 50,000-volt Taser guns prompted Moat to fire a sawn-off shotgun at his head in a dramatic end to the standoff.

Mr Moat - wanted for the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend and gun attacks on her and a policeman - took his own life early Saturday despite the efforts of a specialist negotiator to persuade him to surrender. Video of his final moments released yesterday by the News of the World tabloid showed Mr Moat sitting cross-legged close to the banks of the river, holding a shotgun pressed up to his chin as heavily armed police surround him.

At one point, the 37-year-old former nightclub bouncer eats a sandwich thrown to him by police but his right hand never leaves the trigger of his gun.