Wales police Taser death: Man dies after being shot with stun gun in Llanelli

Police had been called by a woman concerned about the man's welfare, investigators said

British police started using Tasers in 2003 (Getty)

A man has died after being shot with a Taser by police in Wales.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said officers from the Dyfed-Powys force were called to an incident Llanelli.

“Officers attended and, during engagement with the man, it is understood a Taser was discharged," a spokeswoman said.

“The man became unresponsive and was subsequently pronounced dead. The IPCC has begun an independent investigation.”

The man was Tasered in Llanelli (Creative Commons)

Officers were called on Tuesday evening by a member of the public who had become concerned about the welfare of the man, who appeared to be injured in the Morfa area.

The Welsh Ambulance Service said it was called at 7.35pm and sent two rapid response vehicles and an ambulance.

A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police did not give any details of the incident but said it related to “the behaviour and welfare of a man”.

”A full investigation has commenced and Dyfed-Powys Police referred the matter to the IPCC, who will now conduct an internal investigation,” she added. “We are fully cooperating with them. Our thoughts are with the family of the man.”

The Police Federation has been pushing for the extended distribution of the weapons to all officers, arguing they are needed to defend against terror attacks and other violent incidents.

Tasers were intended to be a non-lethal was of incapacitating violent suspects but have caused hundreds of deaths around the world, often by causing cardiac arrhythmia or ventricular fibrillation, which can lead to heart attacks or cardiac arrest.

Police used Tasers more than 10,000 times in England and Wales in 2014, according to home Office figures, being fired on more than 1,700 occasions.

Around two thirds of the people involved were mentally ill and black people were three-times more likely to be targeted than white suspects, the statistics showed.

The United Nations has also questioned the UK on its use of Tasers against children after a sharp rise in incident involving minors.

A discharge was the most likely cause of a fire that burned a man to death in Plymouth in 2013. Andrew Pimlott had poured petrol over himself and was holding a lit match, when an officer fired the weapon to stop him setting himself alight.

An inquest found a Taser caused the death of 23-year-old Jordan Begley, who was shot with the stun gun at his home in Manchester in 2013.

A man in Merseyside also suffered a heart attack after being hit twice by the weapon at a hotel in Liverpool in 2012 but survived.

A blind pensioner was controversially Tasered in 2012 after police in Lancashire mistook his white stick for a sword, leading to an undisclosed court settlement.