Man wielding Uzi-type sub-machine gun shot dead by police in 'suicide by cop'

He is earlier thought to have tried to gas himself in his car before walking into a road in the Kent village of Stansted, brandishing the gun.

Investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission are trying to discover if the man had committed "suicide by cop" - forcing police to open fire by threatening to shoot members of the public.

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Unarmed officers had answered a 999 call about a gunman and immediately radioed for armed back-up.

Two police marksmen challenged the man before firing two shots, both of which hit him.

A gun matching the description given in the 999 call was recovered from the scene of the shooting on Saturday morning.

The man, aged about 40 and described as "troubled and sad", had spent the previous evening drinking in the village's Black Horse pub.

Landlady Anne Roberts, 60, said: "He was here all night drinking vodka and Red Bull. He told us he was originally from this area, but that he had moved away.

"He said he was on a trip down memory lane because his grandparents used to bring him here when he was a boy.

"He was friendly but I was worried about him because he had a troubled air. He seemed sad and I felt sorry for him."

Miss Roberts said that although the man seemed depressed, he was in no way violent or aggressive.

She said: "He was a friendly chap who had a chat with a lot of the locals.

"He seemed a bit unwell but I'm shocked to hear he threatened someone with a gun. He did not seem like that sort of person."

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The man told Miss Roberts he was staying in a nearby bed and breakfast in Fairseat Lane - but there is no B&B in that road.

The landlady said he told her he had a well-paid job and she thought he said he was an electrical engineer.

It is thought the man later tried to commit suicide by driving his white Mitsubishi car into a nearby field and running a hosepipe from the exhaust pipe through a window.

Investigators believe they know the dead man's identity, but he is not expected to be named until Wednesday.

The IPCC said he was white and from Kent although he did not live in Stansted, which is near Sevenoaks. It is not believed he held a firearms licence or was a member of a gun club.

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"Suicide by cop" is a term which originated in the US in the 1980s to explain the actions of people who appear to deliberately provoke police to open fire.

Saturday's death was the second fatal police shooting in the area in six months.

Stores manager Ann Sanderson, 37, was shot dead in Sevenoaks town centre in the early hours of June 11 after reports that she had a gun.