Six military police officers were killed and eight other soldiers wounded in two attacks in southern Iraq yesterday in the biggest setback to British forces since the war was declared officially over.

The bodies of the dead - the largest number of British military personnel to be killed by hostile fire since the war began and the first to die since April 6 - were recovered from the town of Majar al-Kabir, 15 miles south of Amara.

In an emergency statement last night the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, told the Commons that the dead soldiers had been engaged in training the local Iraqi police.

He said local information suggested they might have been involved in what he described as "an incident" at the police station.

"I regret that at this stage I am unable to provide any further details. British commanders are obviously investigating the situation as a matter of urgency," Mr Hoon said.

In a separate incident at 7.30am, troops from the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment engaged in a routine patrol in the same town were ambushed by guerrilla forces.

Their two vehicles were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machineguns and rifle fire from "a large number of Iraqi gunmen", the defence secretary told MPs.

Urging the MoD to send more troops if necessary, the Tory defence spokesman, Bernard Jenkin, noted: "It is still too early to tell if this signals a general worsening of security in Iraq."