Police have shot a man dead in London after he threatened a woman with a knife in the first fatal shooting by the Met Police since Mark Duggan.

Officers were called to the home in Shepperton Road, Islington, at 11.15pm on Thursday following reports of a man breaking in.

When they arrived minutes later, they found a 40-year-old man threatening a woman with a knife, the Met Police said.

A negotiator, ambulances and armed police were called to the scene in response to the “seriousness of the situation”.

A statement from Scotland Yard said the man was shot shortly before 1am “a number” of times. He was treated at the scene by paramedics but died on the way to hospital 20 minutes later.

The woman was unharmed in the incident but was treated for shock.

Several neighbours in the residential road were woken by the incident but many did not know the sound was gunshots.

Lyssa Barber, a neighbour, said: “I was woken up to shouts and immediately afterwards to what sounded like four or five bangs. They were gunshots.

“I think I heard five gunshots, but a gunshot in real life doesn't sound like it does on TV. It sounded like loud bangs on a door. Bang, bang, bang. Then I realised, if it's somebody banging on the door, why can I hear it?"

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, compared the sound to fireworks.

She said: "I heard lots of shots - three or four. Like a bonfire. I've never heard anything like it before. It was really scary."

Commander Neil Basu said: “We believe that the man and woman were known to each other - at this stage we cannot confirm the exact relationship.

"No other people were involved in last night's incident.”

He described the man as black and said he was thought to be born in Islington but gave no further details because his family have not yet been informed.

The shooting came hours after 82-year-old Palmira Silva was “beheaded” in her garden in Edmonton.

Commander Basu said: “Over the last 24 hours in London we have seen a number of high profile incidents - and I would like to take this opportunity to say that incidents of this nature are rare and that London continues to be a very safe city.

“These events do demonstrate the challenging nature of the work that our firearms officers - and all our officers - have to perform on a daily basis.”

Shepperton Road was cordoned off on Friday morning, with several officers standing guard along the leafy street.

The Met Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed and the incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The man, who has not been named, is the first person killed by police in England, Scotland and Wales since March 2012, when Anthony Grainger, 36, was shot through the chest as he sat in a car in Cheshire.

Prosecutors decided not to charge any officers involved with unlawful killing, instead charging Greater Manchester Police under health and safety legislation, because poor police planning had allegedly led to Mr Grainger's death.