Is a "Shoot to kill" policy ever acceptable?

With the London bombings still fresh in the minds of all Londoners terrorist tried to inflict further devastation but this time their bombs failed to explode. As the bombers fled and London's police force launched a full scale man hunt, armed police shot dead a Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes.

Eyewitness reports indicated that the police chased and then caught Menezes and then shot him eight times suspecting that he was a suicide bomber.

The police have since issued a statement that they are now satisfied that Jean Menezes was innocent of any connection to the London bombings.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that he was "desperately sorry" about the killing, but added that the police were working in "very, very difficult circumstances."

Early reports seem to suggest that after being challenged by plain clothed policemen Mr Menezes fled into the tube station giving the impression to the chasing officers that he was indeed, as they had suspected, a suicide bomber.

Was this just a tragic event or have the authorities, by adopting a "shoot to kill policy", played into the terrorist hands and made London a city where the general public now have to fear the police?

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