Security cameras may be installed in cabs across the district to protect drivers from attack.

The move is being considered by Bradford Council following serious assaults and the murder of a driver.

The cameras would be linked with a control centre and drivers could press a panic button if they wanted help. The centre would contact the police and use a Global Positioning System to pinpoint the location and registration number of the cab.

The Council says attacks are running at one a week, and 350 drivers have quit the job in the past two years - some because of the risks. Now the authority is considering how funding can be found to install the cameras to help its 1,600 licensed drivers.

Today the move was welcomed by Linda Smith, chairman of the Bradford branch of the National Private Hire Association.

But she warned that drivers were regularly quitting the trade because of abusive passengers who had been drinking.

She said: "On top of the rising cost of insurance, I think Bradford will become one of the few cities short of taxis and people will have to wait a very long time to get them.

"The drivers are extremely vulnerable and suffer verbal as well as physical abuse, particularly late at night when people have been drinking.

"They also feel they don't have a lot of support from police, who don't get there very fast. "

Chairman of the Council's hackney carriage and private hire panel, Councillor Andrew Smith, said they wanted to help drivers if they could find the finance. He said they had already been in talks with a company which provided the cameras, but the Council would have to go out to tender if it went ahead with a scheme. The system costs about £1,350 a car, which could be paid in instalments.

Gary Pawson, a director of Holmfirth-based Veta Tech, which provides the system, said several councils were interested in it and it had been the subject of a trial in Lancashire.

l A road rage fracas is believed to have led to the killing of minicab driver Mohammed Basharat.