A national police bravery award has been posthumously awarded to PC Ian Dibell (41), who was killed when he tackled a gunman in the street near his home.

Mr Dibell died while trying to disarm Peter Reeve, who had opened fire on a couple in Clacton, Essex, in July last year.

At the annual Police Bravery Awards, PC Dibell was voted the most courageous office, along with honours paid to 13 other officers.

The officers honoured were:

• PC Nathan Jackman and PC Peter Stevens, from Merseyside Police, for

tackling a knifeman and saving a victim's life

• Off-duty PC Sara Widdrington, from North Yorkshire, for tackling a

gunman in a supermarket

• PC Stephen Fletcher and PC Rory Stuart-Knill, from West Midlands, who

were attacked by a petrol bomb gang

• PC Martin Bentley, of Norfolk Police, for chasing a knifeman despite being

stabbed

• PC Alun Morgan from Dyfed Powys, for diving into in a quarry to rescue a

boy from drowning

• PC Nicholas French, from Gloucestershire, for tackling a man armed with a

knife and a lawn edger

• PCs Stephen Barker, Thomas Harding, Shumal Haque, Alastair Hinchliff

and Andrew Robb, all of London, for confronting a man armed with a knife

in a butcher's shop, ending in three of them being stabbed and one

fracturing bones in both hands.

(MH/IT)