LONDON: 

pic used for representation

Women employed with German police will wear bullet-proof bras after normal underwear were found to cause injuries in the line of duty. The new bras, which are emblazoned with the word police and made from cotton, polyester and some synthetic materials, was developed as a second barrier of defence.

"This was pioneering work. The safety of our officers is paramount," said Ruediger Carstens, a spokeswoman for the German police.

"These (bras) can save someone's life so it's not a laughing matter," Carmen Kibat, said a policewoman in Hamburg who tested the new underwear. Kibat organised Action Brassiere across Germany, getting hundreds of policewomen to try the bras out in the line of duty. The officers' bullet-proof vests, while stopping the force of gunshots in an attack, pushed the plastic and metal parts of their underwear into their flesh, causing injury.

Three thousand front-line women police officers will be required to wear the bras on duty. Their bosses have decided to allow them to have three each.