Officers injured as they smother human fireball

The firearms experts used their own bodies to smother the flames after the 23-year-old, who had been wielding a knife, doused himself with petrol last night.

They are today recovering in hospital after suffering burns and smoke inhalation. The dramatic scenes unfolded close to an £8,000-a-term private boarding school and in a road lined with £1 million homes.

Beat officers were called to the scene following reports that a man was threatening to attack residents of a house in Cranleigh, Surrey.

The Pcs requested the armed unit after the man threatened them with a knife and ran off waving a petrol can into nearby woods. The gun officers and sniffer dogs searched for him and later found the man at the back of his home.

He had poured petrol over himself and was holding a lighter and the weapon. Although ordered to drop the objects, he set himself ablaze.

As the human fireball lunged at them, the marksmen shot him with a baton round to stun him. He fell to the floor and the officers leapt on the burning figure, using their hands and bodies to smother the flames.

The officers were taken to hospital for treatment and were expected to be discharged later today.

The knifeman was treated at the same hospital for burns injuries that were not believed to be lifethreatening.