A police officer is critically ill in hospital after suffering "life-threatening head injuries" in an incident involving burglary suspects in London.
Police were called in the early hours of this morning to reports of an aggravated burglary in Dagenham, east London.
It is not yet clear how the officer - a member of the Met Police's CO19 firearms unit - was injured, but a Scotland Yard spokesman said he had not been shot or stabbed.
The suspects escaped the scene in a silver Chrysler, which failed to stop for officers in an armed response vehicle in Stratford town centre. Police followed the vehicle in the direction of Leytonstone High Road and a male suspect made off on foot when it stopped briefly.
Shortly afterwards, the Chrysler was stopped in Ashlin Road, Newham. It was then that an officer in his thirties left the armed response vehicle and sustained serious head injuries.
Two other officers sustained minor injuries as the Chrysler rammed a marked police vehicle in a bid to leave the scene.
The three people in the Chrysler were arrested and taken to east London police stations where they remain in custody.