Daily Mail

Bricks thrown at paramedics after hoax call

Two girls aged 13 and 14 arrested

- By Josh White

AN ambulance crew was pelted with bricks, glasses, tables and chairs as they responded to a call claiming a 13-year- old girl was in cardiac arrest.

A rapid response car and ambulance were sent to an address given during the hoax 999 call only to have an array of household objects hurled at them from upstairs windows.

Paramedics were left ‘extremely shaken’ and called police to the red-brick terraced house in Eastleigh, Hampshire at around 5.30pm on Wednesday. Officers arrested two girls aged 13 and 14. They remained in police custody yesterday.

A spokesman for South Central Ambulance Service said: ‘It beggars belief what happened to our staff. We received a 999 call informing us that a 13-year- old girl was in cardiac arrest.

‘We immediatel­y sent a rapid response car and ambulance but when they arrived they were met by a barrage of bricks, glasses, tables, chairs and other items from the upstairs windows.

‘What makes this even worse is that all the staff and vehicles we sent were diverted from local people in genuine pain and distress with real illnesses, real injuries and real emergencie­s by our equally frustrated and appalled control room team.

‘So if you’ve been waiting longer for us the evening in the local area, this is the reason why. Let’s hope the people taken away by Hampshire police are having the largest book at the local station thrown in their direction.’

A neighbour in her 40s, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘There were lads in the street and the girls were shouting stuff out [of] the window. They got into an argument with the lady next door.

‘When the ambulance arrived they were shouting out [of] the window and they started throwing stuff. When the police arrived they shut off the whole street.

‘I went outside and couldn’t believe it. They took a window out from downstairs so they could get into the house to the girls.

‘It got out of hand – the girls were egging each other on.’ The two teenage girls were arrested on suspicion of assault, causing wasteful employment of the police and using threatenin­g, abusive, insulting words and behaviour..

Paul Jefferies of South Central Ambulance Service said: ‘Luckily on this occasion our staff weren’t physically hurt, but obviously there’s the mental and emotional trauma that goes with this.

‘ They were very shaken up because it’s not what you expect. The vehicle was damaged as well because it took the brunt of some of the objects being thrown.

‘The informatio­n [given over the phone by the callers] was credible and it led us to believe there was a patient there in cardiac arrest. The vehicles are damaged – there’s bodywork damage and dents and some damage to the glass.’

The red-brick property is owned by housing associatio­n Radian, with neighbours saying the company ‘instructed’ them not to speak about what happened.

However, another neighbour said: ‘There was music blaring from the upstairs. All the windows were open and there was a big group of lads on bikes outside.

‘When the ambulance car turned up, things calmed down a little bit. But that was when I left. It obviously got a lot worse.’

‘Police shut off the whole street’

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom