Police officer run over by car theft suspect in Moseley

The suspect was arrested in a busy street

A police officer was seriously hurt when he was run over with his own vehicle by a suspected car thief.

West Midlands Police said the man, suspected of stealing a Range Rover Sport, punched the officer to the ground as he tried to arrest him at 16:45 BST on Saturday in Birmingham.

The traffic officer was then run over, suffering serious head and pelvic injuries.

A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

The officer was in Moorcroft Road, Moseley, tracing the Range Rover which had been stolen minutes earlier from a woman, police said.

"As he [the officer] moved in to arrest the man he was violently assaulted and punched to the ground - and then run over by the suspect as he jumped behind the wheel of the PC's police patrol vehicle," a force statement said.

"It's understood the man drove the marked police car for around a mile into Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook, where he abandoned the vehicle and tried to steal another car."

The traffic officer was attacked in Moorcroft Road, Moseley, as he tried to arrest a suspect

The suspect was later cornered by armed police and Tasered before being arrested,

Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Boycott said: "This is a shocking attack in which a member of our police family has been seriously hurt while trying to detain a crime suspect."

Eyewitness Sohail Razaque said he was driving up to the junction of Ladypool Road when a police car came past him on sirens and crashed with another vehicle.

Mr Razaque, a manager at Birmingham-based BMV Solicitors, said he then saw a man trying to get into a car.

"He half got in it, then got back out again and then he tried to get through some metal shutters that looked like it was a shop at the roadside.

"By then the police were already following him trying to get him to stop, shouting at him to get down."

The man was then Tasered and pinned down, Mr Razaque said.

Several people witnessed the arrest

The attack came just days after PC Stuart Outten was stabbed in the head as he tried to stop a van suspected of having no insurance in Leyton, east London.

The Met Police officer Tasered his assailant despite receiving multiple stab wounds to his head and body.

Muhammad Rodwan, 56, of Luton, is charged with attempted murder and possessing an offensive weapon.

He is due to appear at the Old Bailey on 6 September.