Sussex police officers have used US-style stun guns to shock suspects into submission with 50,000-volt charges.

Figures published by the Home Office show the county's force has fired Taser guns on three separate occasions since the Government authorised their use in 2004.

The force has also drawn and aimed the weapon on another occasion - projecting a red dot on the intended target as a warning.

The guns, which look like fluorescent pistols, use compressed air to fire two darts that trail an electric cable back to the handset.

When the darts strike, a fivesecond 50,000-volt charge is released down the cable, temporarily paralysing the target's muscles.

Critics have linked their use to dozens of deaths but the makers say they save lives by reducing the use of firearms.

Five police forces - Lincolnshire, Metropolitan, Northamptonshire, North Wales and Thames Valley - began trialling the use of the Taser in 2003.

In September 2004, the Home Secretary authorised chief officers throughout England and Wales to use Taser weapons.

Since then, there have been 572 incidents involving Taser guns, which have been drawn and aimed 301 times, fired as a demonstration or warning 27 times, applied directly to suspects' skin 26 times and fired 218 times.

Amnesty International has long campaigned against the use of Tasers, arguing they have been linked to more than 150 deaths in the USA and Canada since 2001. Use by police in the UK has also sparked debate. Late last year a man in County Durham died three days after being shot with a Taser.

According to a poll by the Police Federation, the representative body to which every police officer below the rank of superintendent belongs, 89 per cent of officers want to see the use of Tasers extended.