Wrong ammo injures officer

A police officer was injured in a firearms training accident - because headquarters was given the wrong ammunition.

The incident took place during ammunition testing at the Royal New Zealand Police College at Porirua, one of a handful of firing ranges where officers practise firearms skills.

Details of the incident are revealed in papers that police fought to suppress for 10 months. They were finally released last week after a review by the Office of the Ombudsman.

The officer was hit by a fragment of a round fired from the new Bushmaster rifles, the police equivalent of the M16, now used across the country.

It came after the police tendered for a supplier for .223 training ammunition to use with the rifle.

The papers state: "Subsequently, the supplier was unable to supply this round and offered an alternative round allegedly to the same specification. This proved not to be the case. The incident occurred during testing on the range."

The papers refer to the officer having suffered "an injury", although police headquarters played it down after the papers' release.

Spokesman Jon Neilson said "an incident occurred where a small fragment of jacket from a round came back and struck a person". The person was struck after the bullet hit steel and ricocheted back down the firing range.

Neilson said: "A report recommended removal of steel target systems and cladding of exposed steel ... within the range environment to minimise the likelihood of 'splashback'."

Police were confident the range was now being used safely.

The papers show that police recommended nationwide changes to ensure firearms practice did not involve having steel areas within the area of fire. Other papers released addressed concerns about the build-up of gases from shooting inside firing ranges.

Police tried to address concerns by offering staff blood testing, finding "no excessive exposure to lead".

Superintendent Bruce Dunstan said a solution to the build-up of gas had not been found, but studies had found "no appreciable health risks".