Another Hamilton policeman was stabbed during an incident at a home in the city today.
Area commander Inspector Rob Linsday said the officer received a 3cm to 4-cm gash on his chest while he arrested a man in a domestic incident at midday.
The policeman was not wearing
a stab-proof vest because he was too tall for the available vests, Mr Lindsay said.
Police were called to a home in Normandy Avenue after a 32-year-old man had poured petrol throughout a house and was threatening to set it alight -- while two other adults and three children were inside.
Mr Linsday said no one else was hurt during the incident, and the officer's wound was superficial and didn't need stitches.
The weapon was a large kitchen knife.
The officer wasn't wearing a stab-proof vest because he was "well over 6ft tall" and was waiting for one of the standard vests to be adjusted to fit him.
"We've got a big rollout of equipment and there's always going to be people who don't meet the normal sizes, and he's one of the ones who needs to be re-measured."
Mr Lindsay said 240 of Hamilton's frontline police staff had been issued with vests and were wearing them whenever they left the station.
He could not say how many officers were still waiting for their vests.
The incident follows the stabbing of another Hamilton policeman, during an arrest over a breached protection order on May 9.
The officer, Acting Sergeant Andrew Grice, was stabbed in the shoulder and back, and underwent surgery for a punctured lung.
Mr Grice had been measured for his vest but had not yet received it at the time of the stabbing.
Mr Lindsay said the offender at the centre of today's incident was arrested and charged with assault with a weapon and threatening to kill .
More charges were likely.
The man was in a highly agitated and enraged state, and was refusing to cooperate with police attempts to interview him, Mr Lindsay said.
Police hadn't used a taser during the incident because there was a strong smell of petrol, he added.
- NZPA
