A MAD dog and men armed with machetes, axes, crossbows, swords, bars and knives have all come under fire from police wielding Tasers across Cheshire.

The 50,000-volt electric guns have been used by Cheshire Police since 2004 and, while currently only specially trained authorised firearms officers are allowed to carry the weapon, an announcement from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in November could see all frontline officers armed with Tasers.

A Freedom of Information request by the World revealed Cheshire Police used (or threatened the use of) the stun gun, which temporarily disables suspects, 36 times in the past 17 months.

Four of these occasions were in Widnes when it was drawn to tackle three men armed with bars last July, its laser sight was pointed at a man with a sword in the same month and at a knifeman and a man behaving violently in August.

Runcorn police used the weapon twice in April, drawing the stun gun to subdue a woman with a knife and targeted at a knifeman.

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: “Taser has been routinely carried by armed response officers as part of a range of less-than-lethal options available to ensure public safety in dealing with incidents where extreme violence is offered or threatened.

“In all this time, Taser has been deployed on only 36 occasions, and has only actually been discharged on 14 of these occasions.

“Each incident has been safely and successfully resolved and the use of Taser has been of significant benefit to public and officer safety in incidents where, had this option not been available, serious injury or a loss of life might have occurred.”

Cheshire Constabulary has been monitoring the outcome of the year-long trial to arm officers in specially trained frontline units with Taser.

The spokesman added: “We are now consulting and considering how best to bring this extended use of Taser into the remit of our ow