Killed in the line of duty
The two constables killed in Greater Manchester are among hundreds of officers to have died doing their job, including Sharon Beshenivsky, Yvonne Fletcher and Keith Blakelock.
Ian Dibell was shot dead near his home in Clacton in July after trying to intervene in a dispute. The body of his suspected killer, Peter Reeve, was found in an Essex churchyard.
In February, David Rathband, who was shot and blinded by Raoul Moat, was found dead at his home in Blyth. His inquest has been delayed, but at the time of his death, Northumbria Police said nobody else was involved.
In 2011, Ronan Kerr was killed by a bomb underneath his car in Omagh.
Two years before, Gary Toms was critically injured confronting suspects in east London. He died six days later when his life support machine was switched off – 25 years to the day that Yvonne Fletcher was killed.
In 2005, Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead by a criminal gang during a robbery in Bradford.
She was the seventh female police officer in Great Britain to be killed on duty. Two men were convicted of her murder.
Her colleague, Teresa Millburn, was also shot and received serious wounds to the chest.
In 2003, Ian Broadhurst, was murdered by the American bodybuilder David Bieber in Leeds on Boxing Day.
In the same year, Stephen Oake was killed during a raid on a flat in Manchester. Kamel Bourgass, who had been plotting a ricin poison attack, was sentenced to life for his murder.
In 2001, Alison Armitage died after being run over by the driver of a stolen car in Oldham.
In 1997, Nina Mackay was stabbed to death by a paranoid schizophrenic in London while attempting an arrest. She had removed her body armour because it was difficult to use a battering ram while wearing protective equipment.
It was the first killing of a woman officer since Yvonne Fletcher’s death in 1984.
Keith Blakelock was killed during rioting on the Broadwater Farm estate in north London in 1985. He received over 40 injuries and was stabbed in the neck.
PC Blakelock was the only police constable to die in a riot in Britain since Robert Culley was stabbed to death in central London in 1833.
In 1984, Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London. Her death led to an 11-day siege of the embassy, from where the shots had been fired, and the severing of diplomatic relations with Tripoli. Her killer has never been brought to justice.
In 1983, three officers – Jane Arbuthnot, Stephen Dodd and Noel Lane – died in an IRA car bombing outside Harrods department strore in central London. Another officer, Jon Gordon, lost his legs in the blast.
