A young policeman was shot dead yesterday during a training exercise using live ammunition.

Firearms investigators are trying to find out how the accident happened — raising urgent questions about training procedures.

PC Ian Terry, 25, who was married without children, was hit in the chest in the yard of a disused electronics factory in Newton Heath, Manchester, at 11.35am. He was taken to North Manchester General Hospital but pronounced dead soon after arrival.

It is understood that officers had been enacting a getaway scene in which they were shooting at the tyres of a fleeing vehicle. A source said that the ammunition they used was a cross between live rounds and blanks, although powerful enough to puncture a car tyre.

As police comforted Mr Terry’s wife and family, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, expressed her “deepest sympathy”, telling MPs that the death demonstrated the dangers faced by police “on our behalf”.

Greater Manchester Police has several dedicated firearms units, and the shooting comes only days after the force announced a £6.5 million programme to tackle gun crime in the city.

Investigators will focus on three questions: was Mr Terry wearing body armour, was he accidentally caught in crossfire and are live rounds employed routinely outside firing ranges?

The exercise took place took at the former Sharp electronics factory on the Manchester to Oldham road. Part of a police uniform could be seen lying in the yard as forensic science and firearms officers gathered evidence.

Residents and local workers said that they were unaware police had been using the site as a training centre. Leon Willis, 26, who works for Newton Plumbing Supplies, criticised police, saying: “We did not know that the police were using it. The first indication we had that something was seriously wrong was when the police cars and ambulances started hurtling into the factory.

“I think it is really dangerous if the police were using such a busy area to practise firearms training. I know that they have got to do their training somewhere, but this is a busy area. Surely the police could find some safe, purpose-built site out in the country.”

Dave Whatton, the acting Chief Constable, said that family, friends and colleagues of Mr Terry were devastated by the death.“His family, his wife, his parents and his brother are now all aware and we will support them in every way we can,” he said.

“I cannot go into the circumstances of how the officer was killed, but what I can say is there was no risk at any stage to any member of the public. Nobody else was hurt when the accident happened and there is now a full investigation taking place.

“What I can say is that everybody is devastated at the loss of a highly regarded colleague and friend to many officers.” Mr Whatton said that it would be inappropriate at this stage to talk about the force’s firearms procedures, but added: “There are occasions when we use paint balls, electronic guns and all sorts of things . . . There is training equipment we use on ranges but occasionally there are kinds of training we cannot do in the confined firearms range environment. It would, however, be wrong to speculate how the officer has been injured.”

In the Commons, Ms Smith told MPs: “The whole House will be saddened to learn of the tragic death of a police officer during a training exercise with Greater Manchester Police. This demonstrates the dangers that police officers face on our behalf. I am sure the whole House will join me in expressing our deepest sympathy to the officers’s family, friends and colleagues.”

Michael Winner, chairman of the Police Memorial Trust, said that he had never heard of a police officer being killed in training before “but it would be impossible to think that you don’t get these tragic deaths like in the Army or Air Force”.

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