THE US company that makes the stun-gun used in the arrest of one of the London bomb suspects is expecting a surge in sales because of demands that all British police officers be equipped with a Taser.

The weapon, which stuns a person with a 50,000-volt charge, is used by police forces across America.

Since March, the Taser has been authorised for use by firearms officers in the UK. However, the numbers are expected to grow, The Times has learnt, because the Police Federation, which represents junior ranks, has called for funding to supply a Taser to every British officer.

“Since the Home Office gave the approval for the device in March we have been exceptionally busy,” said Kevin Coles, co-founder of Protec Systems, Taser’s UK distributor.

“And since the Birmingham arrest (when police used a Taser to arrest Yasin Hassan Omar, a suspected bomber), the phone has been ringing off the hook. The Police Federation believes that all frontline officers should have a Taser, and not just firearms officers.”

Tom Smith, co-founder of Taser International, which makes the device, describes the effect of a Taser as being like a thousand pneumatic drills shaking every fibre of the body. “Then the assailant becomes incapacitated and falls down,” Mr Smith said.

Mr Coles said that some 6,000 to 7,000 firearms officers in the UK have either been issued with a Taser or have been trained in use of the device. Equipping all British police forces would increase sales in the UK by more than 90 per cent to 140,000 units, according to Taser’s estimates.

The push to issue the device to all officers comes despite comments from Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Sir Ian questioned the use by West Midlands police of a Taser in the arrest of Omar because the electric current from a Taser can trigger the type of detonators used by suicide bombers.

The weapon, which is intended to be non-lethal, has also been dogged by claims that it can kill. Sales almost tripled in 2004 to $67 million (£38 million), but a report by Amnesty International, the human rights group, that the device had killed 120 people, prompted a series of costly lawsuits.

“Our sales were cut in half overnight,” said Mr Smith, who founded Taser International with his brother Rick in 1993. “It was unbelievable. These claims are all totally unsubstantiated. We have never lost a lawsuit, yet sales in the first quarter of this year dropped to $10.2 million.”

Export sales of the Taser were just $2.7 million last year. “In the next five years we think overseas sales could easily match group sales for last year,” Mr Smith said, adding that his firm is authorised to sell the guns in many countries.