5:32am UK, Sunday June 08, 2003

Police say a motorist shot dead near Heathrow airport was holding a replica weapon.

180 heathrow shooting sign fatal

Police launch Heathrow inquiry

The man had refused to stop at a routine police checkpoint near the airport.

A police spokesman said the driver is understood to have pointed the replica 8mm pistol at a police officer, who immediately called for armed back-up.

Commander Phil Gormley, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "It's a split-second decision. It's impossible to tell if someone has a fake weapon or a real one." 

A Police Complaints Authority investigation is under way.

The man was driving alone along Saxon Way, West Drayton, at 4.30pm on Friday, half a mile from the perimeter of Heathrow Airport, when a dog handler from Heathrow Police "routinely observing passing vehicles" signalled for him to stop.

Two ambulances and an air ambulance were called to the scene a few minutes later but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man was white but no further details have been given.

Security at the airport was stepped up in February because of heightened fears that it might be targeted for a terrorist attack.