The Police Ombudsman has concluded that a police officer was justified in shooting at a car which was driven directly at him as he and a colleague tried to apprehend the driver.

The incident happened at Watson Road, Newry, at around 2.30am on 25 November 2002.

Police in the city had received reports of three separate ram raid burglaries involving a white vehicle during the previous hour and a half.

A police patrol believed they had found the suspect vehicle when they spotted a car with damaged headlights approaching them at speed on Watson Road.

The two man patrol stopped their car in the middle of the road to block the car's path, which then stopped a few feet from the front of their vehicle. The officers noted that the vehicle was white, had extensive damage to the front and had only one male occupant.

One of the officers got out of his vehicle, approached the car and said: "Police, stop the car, get out of the car."

The car, a Vauxhall Astra, reversed at speed and struck a stone wall, ending up facing sideways across the road. The officer, who said he feared the driver would make off on foot, ran towards the car, followed by his colleague in the police car.

The Astra then spun its tyres and instead of turning left away from police, it turned right and drove directly towards the officer who was on foot. The officer was unable to get back to the police car, and was hemmed in by the stone wall bounding one side of Watson Road.

He later told Police Ombudsman investigators that he feared for his life and drew his personal protection weapon. He discharged a number of aimed shots at the driver.

The car then struck him as it passed, hitting his right leg, spinning him around and knocking him to the ground. He said he was left lying against the wall with his nose pressed almost against the tyres of the Astra. He continued to fire shots at the car, but could not remember how many he had discharged.

The Astra passed him and then collided with the police vehicle before driving on. It was stopped at a police checkpoint less than a mile away, at Doran Hill Road, where it swerved onto the wrong side of the road before striking a police Land Rover and coming to rest against a lamppost.

The driver got out of the car and attempted to run from the scene, but police gave chase and arrested him. He was found to have a gunshot wound to his right upper arm and given treatment at the scene before being transferred to Daisy Hill Hospital. An x-ray later revealed that a bullet was lodged in the soft tissue of his chest wall.

The officer who was struck by the man's car was medically examined and was shown to have suffered injuries to his neck, lower back and legs, which a doctor described as "consistent with having recently been involved in an extremely stressful event."

A search of the scene at which the officer had been knocked down recovered six spent shells. A subsequent examination of the Astra by a forensic scientist showed that it had been struck by three bullets - on the driver's side of the bonnet, on the driver's side of the windscreen, and in the middle of the boot area.

The scientist said it appeared the bullets had come from different directions, two hitting the front of the car, one hitting the rear. He said the trajectory of the shots suggested that they had been fired from a kneeling or squatting position.

The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, concluded that the officer's life had been in imminent danger, and said his use of live fire was justified in the circumstances.

However, she pointed out that the use of live fire against moving vehicles should not normally take place, pointing out that it is unlikely a vehicle will be immobilised this way.

"An exception is catered for when an individual's life is at risk. The evidence available in this investigation indicates that [the officer's] life was in danger and nothing to the contrary has been uncovered."