AN off-duty officer who was stabbed by a youth attempting to steal his car was lucky not to have been killed in the attack, a senior police officer said today.

Pc Robert Aynsley, 33, was attacked with a knife or screwdriver while trying to arrest a teenager who he caught breaking into his car at around 9.45pm on Saturday in the village of Wylam, Northumberland.

Chief Inspector John Thompson said today: ''Bob lost an awful lot of blood. If the stab wound had been on the other side of his chest we might have been dealing with a murder.''

The injured officer, who trains probationary officers at the National Police Training Centre at Aykley Heads in Durham City, was today in a stable condition at Newcastle General Hospital where he is being treated for multiple stab wounds.

He received two pints of blood in an overnight transfusion.

Chief Inspector Thompson added: ''It was an instinctive reaction to run after him like that.

''This is a very dangerous person who was determined to make good his escape.

''Bob told him he was a police officer but it made no difference.

''The offence of stealing a car is a relatively minor one so if this person was prepared to take someone's life, or seriously injure them, then you have to question their sanity.''

Pc Aynsley now realised how close he had come to dying, Chief Insp Thompson said.

His wife Carol was said to be in shock.

Chief Insp Thompson said the attack had also affected villagers in Wylam, which is in one of the lowest crime areas of the country.

He senior added: ''One crime destroys all the good work that we have been doing to reduce the fear of crime.''

The attacker is described as 6ft 2ins tall and in his late teens. He was very slim, clean shaven, with a gaunt face and had light coloured short hair. He was wearing a white long sleeved top and dark trousers.

Updated: 15.55 Monday, May 7