A police officer slashed his wrists after hearing that two dogs died in his car on one of the hottest days of the year.
Sergeant Ian Cravan, who is a dog trainer, was taken to hospital after the suicide attempt.
The officer could face prosecution for animal cruelty after the two animals – Belgian malinois Chay and five-month-old alsatian Milly – collapsed and died in the back of his car as temperatures soared to 29C.
The dogs were pulled out of the vehicle, which was parked at the Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment in Keston, near Bromley, by staff and smashed the vehicle's closed windows to get to them.
Craven had raised the alarm about the dogs as he was travelling to work at the Olympic site in East London.
The dogs were splashed with water and were rushed to an emergency vet, but it was too late.
Two police dogs die in locked car on one of UK's hottest days
Kennel assistant Tina Dale, 54, who tried to save the animals said: "The suffering those dogs went through is too unbearable to think about. I'm in bits, we tried so so hard, but it was too long, the damage had been done. What a bloody awful way to die."
Craven was told that the dogs had died when he was on his way back to Keston. He fled the car and was found by colleagues on a canal path after apparently attempting suicide.
This is the second time that Craven has been responsible for the death of a dog which was left in his vehicle.
A spaniel died in his vehicle in July 2004, an incident which Craven was disciplined for.
Jan Creamer, head of Animal Defenders International, told the Daily Mail: "It is the golden rule that you never ever leave dogs in hot cars.
"While we do not doubt that this was a tragic accident, we would have thought that the Met Police dog unit should be setting an example to others.
"We would question why dogs were in the car at all as there are kennelling facilities on-site, we believe.
"Surely it should have been standard operating procedure to put the dogs in kennels on hot days."
