A BEAT bobby who came within inches of losing his life in a frenzied attack by a paranoid schizophrenic has resisted calls for all police officers to be armed.

PC John Wood and colleague PC Carl Wood were repeatedly stabbed with a sharpened scissor blade during a routine stop-check in a Darlington street.

Lee Dixon was last week locked up indefinitely and will be released from hospital only when he is no longer deemed a public risk.

The Northern Echo reported how the two PCs fought for their lives as the 22-year-old attacked them.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he screamed “I’ll kill you” as he struggled to plunge the blade in their eyes.

PC John Wood, who has become a traffic officer since the drama, in Gurney Street, last August, said that although he came close to being killed, police should not routinely carry guns.

The married father-of-two said he was now trained to use a taser stun gun, and believes such a weapon would have stopped the attack in seconds.

Dixon fought on despite being twice hit with pepper spray, repeatedly kneed in the torso and an attempt to choke him into unconsciousness.

The PCs – one who was stabbed in the back of the neck and slashed across the face, the other in the arm – described him as having unrelenting energy.

PC Wood said: “If I had had a taser, I would have shouted a warning. If there had been no compliance or the assault continued, I would have deployed it and that would have ended it.”

He said not all officers should carry the weapons, but agreed more should be trained to use them, and that they should be available as back-up to their beat colleagues.

PC Wood, 40, and his 26- year-old colleague were saved when fellow officers alerted by a panic alarm arrived to help restrain him.

PC Carl Wood, who has been in the job three years, recalled how he looked into a puddle of his own blood and glanced up to see the first relief officer reach them.

He said: “I have never felt so relieved in all my life. I am not sure what happened after that other than I was walking around in a daze. I was in total shock and physically drained.”