More than a third of the plastic bullets fired by the RUC during the Drumcree stand-off in 1996 caused life-threatening injuries according to a new report.
In an article in the current Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical Care, five doctors from hospitals which treated the injured claimed 39 per cent of the injuries caused by the firing of 8,165 baton rounds had caused life-threatening injuries to the abdomen or higher on the body of victims.
The official guidelines for the use of baton rounds state that they should be fired at the lower part of a target's body, from a distance of no closer than 20 metres.