In response to an inquiry by our correspondent Paul Lewis, the IPCC has sent this statement to the Guardian:
Analysis of media coverage and queries raised on Twitter have alerted to us to the possibility that we may have inadvertently given misleading information to journalists when responding to very early media queries following the shooting of Mark Duggan by MPS officers on the evening of 4th August.This is significant, as much of the early media coverage referred to an "exchange of shots", with some media outlets clearly implying that police had been shot at first. This issue is one of the key grievances of the Duggan family.
The IPCC's first statement, issued at 22:49 on 4th August, makes no reference to shots fired at police and our subsequent statements have set out the sequence of events based on the emerging evidence. However, having reviewed the information the IPCC received and gave out during the very early hours of the unfolding incident, before any documentation had been received, it seems possible that we may have verbally led journalists to believe that shots were exchanged as this was consistent with early information we received that an officer had been shot and taken to hospital.
Any reference to an exchange of shots was not correct and did not feature in any of our formal statements, although an officer was taken to hospital after the incident.
The IPCC has made another, potentially significant announcement. According to our reporter Paul Lewis, it has announced that it may have "inadvertently" led journalists to believe Mark Duggan, whose death in Tottenham led to the initial riots in north London, was shot at police first.
More on the case of the 24-year-old taken ill in custody. The Press Association reports that he was arrested by British Transport Police at Northwick Park underground station in north-west London on Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of possessing a Class B drug and an offensive weapon.
Here's the rest of the PA report: He was taken to Wembley Park police station's custody suite but became ill and was taken to hospital, where he remains in a serious but improving condition.
The incident was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on Wednesday evening and an independent investigation has begun although officials have not yet spoken to the man.
The IPCC has recovered CCTV from the custody suite and will also be checking for CCTV from the train and Northwick Park station.
Commissioner Sarah Green, who will oversee the investigation, said: "We have met with members of the man's family to discuss our role and our investigation will seek answers to the important questions they no doubt have."
The investigation will look at what happened when officers first came into contact with the man, through to his time in the custody suite, the cause of his illness and whether the police or custody staff could have taken any action to prevent the illness, which has not been specified, or seek medical assistance earlier.
Sky News is reporting that the Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation after a 24-year-old man was taken seriously ill in custody on Wednesday. We'll have more on this soon.
