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The gunman opened fire at a military compound in Helmand province on Tuesday, a day after Afghan election officials canceled a presidential run-off vote and gave President Hamid Karzai a second term in office.

British soldiers returned fire, but the policeman escaped and is still at large, a defense ministry spokeswoman said. An investigation into the shooting is under way.

"An Afghan national policeman from the checkpoint started firing without warning before anyone could really respond," the spokesman said. "Every effort is being put into hunting him down."

Escalating violence in the U.S.-led war, a sharp rise in British casualties over the summer and concerns over corruption in Karzai''s government have created a political headache for Prime Minister Gordon Brown before an election due by June.

Brown has faced criticism over troop numbers, tactics and equipment levels, including suggestions that a lack of helicopters has put British soldiers at risk.

Former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, who chairs a parliamentary security committee, said Britain should withdraw most of its troops and focus on security at home.

"It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate instead on using the money saved to secure our own borders (and) gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain," he wrote in an article for the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday.

Brown, who argues that NATO efforts in Afghanistan have helped to prevent attacks in Britain, said the whole country would mourn the loss of the soldiers. A total of 229 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001.

"The death of five brave soldiers in a single incident is a terrible loss," he said. "They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Britain is the second largest contributor to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, with 9,000 troops fighting the Taliban and helping to train local police and soldiers.

Afghan election officials canceled a presidential run-off election on Monday after Afghan President Hamid Karzai''s rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew citing serious concerns about the election.