Mushrooms on my pizza? Dial 999

EFFORTS to respond to emergency 999 calls over the festive season are being hampered by silly pranksters.

Now police chiefs have appealed to revellers to call 999 only in an emergency as the service gears up for New Year’s Eve, one of its busiest days.

Greater Manchester Police received almost 5,000 999 calls over Christmas.

Of those made between noon on Christmas Eve and noon on Boxing Day, a significant number were from people who did not need the police, and 72 were hoax calls.

One caller dialled 999 to report Santa was breaking into a house with Rudolf, and another dialled the emergency number to ask for chemist opening times.

Other recent unnecessary 999 calls included a priest, from WH Smiths at Manchester airport, who said staff wouldn’t let him use their toilet, a man complaining because he got mushrooms on his takeaway pizza, a woman annoyed because she was unable to get through to “Strictly Come Dancing” to vote for Tom Chambers in the final, and a man who asked what his mobile number was because he knew it would appear on the call handler’s computer screen.

Exasperated senior officers are reminding people they should only call 999 when there is a threat to life or a crime is in progress.

Supt Karan Lee, head of call handling, said: “People dialling 999 for non-emergency calls can put lives at risk because it could delay someone who really needs urgent help getting through.

“New Year’s Eve is always very busy and people calling 999 for non-emergencies and silly pranks can have a major impact on members of the public who need the police.

“I don’t want a person to call 999 and be delayed because someone else is calling to report something that is not an emergency or, worse still, that is completely ridiculous and a deliberate joke.”

Last New Year, Greater Manchester Police dealt with more than 3,000 emergency calls in the six hours after midnight, and thousands more were taken on the force’s non-emergency number.