Strathclyde Police officers will be issued with taser guns under a new pilot scheme.

The force is the first in Scotland to take part in the £45,000 scheme.

Thirty officers will be issued with the 50,000-volt device to combat assaults on police and time taken off work for injuries.

The six-month pilot will take place in Rutherglen and Glasgow city centre.

Tasers deliver an electric shock to immobilise suspected offenders. At the moment only trained firearms officers use the weapons.

In the last five years tasers have been used 29 times by Strathclyde Police.

The details were outlined at a full meeting of Strathclyde Police Authority on Thursday at the City Chambers in Glasgow.

Strathclyde Police Chief Constable Stephen House said: "Injuries to officers are increasing. They are not increasing dramatically. They are up about 5% this year on last year.

"What is increasing dramatically is the amount of time officers spend away from work - it's up 55% as a result of those injuries.

"It tends to indicate to me that injuries are more serious in nature than they used to be."

Mr House said the use of tasers would be "clearly contained" and denied any links to their use in America.

He said: "I have to be very clear - and there's a lot of hype and hysteria, frankly, about what happens if we start using tasers like they do in America."

He said he was not going to comment on American police forces but added: "Our use of tasers is very clearly contained. Officers must perceive that either they or a member of the public is going to be subject to violence before they can use a taser.

"And they must use it proportionally in line with human rights. That is part of the training."

The officers go on a three-day training course, which is a pass or fail course - if they fail they will not be able to use the stun gun.

Mr House said Rutherglen and the city centre divisions were chosen for the pilot due to the higher number of assaults on police than average for the force.

Speaking about the current weapons available to officers, Mr House said: "CS spray is a very, very inconsistent piece of equipment. It isn't effective on everyone.

"It is highly susceptible to blowback on the officers who deploy it themselves."

He said batons could also be "potentially lethal" if someone was struck on the head by accident and the pilot would reveal whether stun guns could work in protecting officers and the public, and deal with suspects in a "more effective manner".

Mr House told the meeting that he did not expect to roll out tasers to all officers if the pilot was successful as the cost would be "hideously expensive".

The stun guns have a computer inside which records information on the last 1,200 times the device was used.

Mr House said the computers would also be used to monitor how the device was deployed during the pilot.

The pilot project, which costs £45,559 to train and equip the 30 officers, is expected to start in March.