Man dies after being tasered 28 times



A man has died after being shot up to 28 times by police armed with a Taser stun gun.

An inquiry has been launched after 39-year-old Antonio Galeano collapsed and died a short time after being stunned by the 50,000 volt Taser gun.

Police in Queensland, Australia said he had been tasered up to 28 times.



Now civil liberties groups are claiming that Tasers are not as harmless as forces around the world believe.

Taser gun: The 50,000 volt shock can cause injury, heart attacks and lead to fatalities



Tasers use a powerful electric current to incapacitate people, with the charge temporarily disrupting muscle control. Critics say the weapon can cause injury including severe heart attack in some people, possibly leading to death.

In Canada and the U.S., tasers have been linked to hundreds of deaths but over more than a million official incidents.

Controversy over their use flared in Britain this week when footage emerged of a man apparently being shot twice by Taser-armed police in Nottingham, leading to calls from human rights groups for an independent investigation.

Australian police said data downloaded from the Taser used last week at at Brandon, south of Townsville, following a confrontation with Galeano showed it had been fired 28 times, but it was still unclear how many times the victim had been hit.

A post mortem was being carried out and Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson ordered an internal investigation, matched by the state's coroner.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said on Thursday police had no instructions on how often they should use the weapon.

A man is tasered twice on the streets in Nottingham earlier this week



'There is no specific guideline that restricts the number of times the trigger can be pulled,' he said.

They are being introduced by several Australian states, although Victoria earlier this month shunned any mass roll out.

Academic criminologist Julian Bondy said the Queensland incident proved Tasers were too powerful.

'We don't issue frontline police with firearms with a thousand bullets, we don't issue them with capsicum spray the size of fire extinguishers.



'Every other weapon they have is limited ... but this one is out of proportion,' Bondy said.

