Hello, 999? There’s a fight on EastEnders

WEST Yorkshire Police have urged the public not to abuse the 999 number after revealing a caller rang the emergency services to report a fight between two TV soap characters.

The man called police using the emergency number last month claiming he wanted to report the brawl between Stacey Slater and Archie Mitchell - from the 2009 Christmas episode of EastEnders.

Police have released details of the call to highlight some of the frivolous reasons people ring 999.

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In another call a woman asked operators to pass her phone number to film star Mark Wahlberg while other people have asked for the time, played music down the line and even sung to operators.

Police are reminding people to dial 101 when making non-emergency calls to officers and not to abuse the 999 emergency number.

The 101 number is now being used by all police forces across England and Wales for non-emergency calls.

West Yorkshire Police began using 101 in November, but some members of the public continue to call the old number.

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The old 0845 number will be switched off in the near future so residents are being urged to take note of the 101 number.

Mark Milsom, assistant chief constable for specialist operations, said: “The festive period is one of the busiest times of the year and, although we have plans in place to manage this, officers should not be wasting time dealing with inappropriate calls instead of genuine emergencies.

“I would also encourage people to think carefully about whether they should be calling 999 or 101. The 999 number is for a genuine emergency or when there is a crime in progress. The 101 number is for incidents which do not need officers to attend immediately.”

One in 10 of the calls to the 999 number taken by West Yorkshire Police throughout the year should have either gone to another organisation or to the new 101 number, the force said.