London police may get bullet-proof vests

All police officers on London streets may be forced to wear bullet-proof body armour following a drive-by shooting this week in which two constables narrowly escaped serious injury.

Gunmen fired at least 10 machine-gun bullets at police, one of which grazed the shoulder of a woman constable in a police van.

Scotland Yard said it was becoming concerned about the number of gun-related incidents, mostly linked to the trade in crack cocaine, and Sir Ian Blair, the Deputy Commissioner of the Met, said his force was considering making it compulsory for officers on public view to wear the bullet-proof vests.