Premier League referee Howard Webb was today offered police protection after death threats were made by Poles furious at his decision to award a controversial penalty in last night's Euro 2008 clash with Austria.

Ivica Vastic scored a 93rd-minute equaliser from the spot after the Yorkshire official penalised Mariusz Lewandowski for holding Sebastian Prodl's shirt.

Poland are in danger of going out of the tournament and, astonishingly, their Prime Minister admitted today he felt like "killing" Webb following last night's 1-1 draw.

But it is death threats to the 36-year-old circulating on the internet that have alerted police. One Polish tabloid summed up the country's outrage branding the referee's ruling a "scandal" and showing a dartboard with his photo encouraging readers to cut it out and use it as a target.

"We have been made aware of the threats to Howard Webb in the Polish media," said a South Yorkshire police spokesman today.

"We have not personally seen the internet threats but if they are genuine we will be investigating them and trying to locate the sites.

"Our boys I'm sure will be in touch with Howard. We are ready to do everything necessary to provide security for him and his family."

Poland's political leader Donald Tusk revealed his fury today when he said: "As Prime Minister I have to be balanced and collected. But last night I was speaking very differently about the whole thing, I wanted to kill."

Webb was based at Sheffield as a policeman but is taking a five-year break to concentrate on his refereeing career.

His decision means Poland must beat Croatia on Monday to have any chance of going through to the last eight.

Angry Poland coach Leo Beenhakker said: "Maybe he [Webb] wants to show he is a big boy and has the guts to do it, I don't know. I've never had a problem in 43 years in football but this is something I cannot understand. We don''t have it in our own hands any more."

Midfielder Dariusz Dudka also weighed into the row and said: "If he's going to call stuff like that, there would have been 10 penalty kicks in the match.

"It's a weird situation. I don't think it was a penalty at all, all the more so because he's a referee from the English league. It's just sick to me."

Despite the Polish claims, UEFA insist Webb made the right decision. Their spokesman William Gaillard said: "There was a lot of wrestling in the area and that's probably why, since he was confronted with the problem during the match, he finally took that decision. He was certainly within the laws of the game."