LANCASHIRE Police Federation has backed calls for a review of safety measures after a PC was stabbed to death.

But Lancashire police bosses insisted that they had already gone one step further by ordering officers wore stab vests at all times.

It comes after PC Jonathan Henry, 36, was attacked as he responded to a call in Luton town centre. Despite wearing a stab vest he died later at Luton and Dunstable Hospital where two other victims are being treated.

The latest death of an officer on duty has re-opened the debate on whether more police officers should carry guns.

Union bosses in Lancashire said officers were facing increasing danger and urged the Home Office to allow officers to carry Taser electric stun guns.

In Lancashire it is compulsory for officers wear a stab and ballistic-proof vests.

Steve Edwards, chairman of Lancashire Police Federation, representing rank and file, said the majority of police officers wanted to carry Taser guns.

He said: "We would urge the Home Office and the force to look at the introduction of electric Taser guns."

Lancashire police bosses say stringent safety measures already existed.

Head of public order and defensive tactics training Sergeant Gary Crowe said: "The Home Office recommends a national minimum standard for safety. Lancashire has adopted a much higher standard.

"The vests themselves offer ballistic protection andin terms of bladed and pointed articles. We go a step further in ensuring that the wearing of body armour is compulsory at all times."

"Additionally all operational Lancashire officers undertake officer safety training which is every 18 months and is a two-day refresher course training officers to deal with situations of conflict, how to talk people down, how to de-esculate situations and dealing with people armed with weapons.

"In Lancashire we also have the operations support unit which can be called in for people offering extremly high levels of violence or emotionally disturbed people, as can the armed response vehicle.

"Actually having a police officers with a firearm in their hand isn't always going to work and there's a reluctance by police officers to carry them as they act as a blocker to the community."

Before the latest death, Police Memorial Trust figures showed 27 officers were killed in the 1970s, 42 in the 1980s, 21 in the 1990s and 16 since 2000.