Six Metropolitan police officers have been suspended from duty following allegations they used a form of water-based torture on suspected drugs smugglers, it emerged last night.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it was investigating the conduct of officers based in Enfield, north London, during drugs raids in the borough last November.
Neither the IPCC nor Scotland Yard would comment on the nature of the allegations but sources said the officers were accused of pushing suspects' heads into buckets of water.
One IPCC document is said to use the word "waterboarding" – the CIA technique condemned as torture by Barack Obama – in connection with the allegations. guardian.co.uk