Hoax 999 call made from phone box near Ironbridge

An unidentified man made the call from a phone in Woodbridge, saying someone had been attacked and needed the police. Then the line went dead.

It happened at about 4.40pm on Thursday.

Checks to confirm the exact location were conducted and follow up calls to the telephone were made as officers were deployed rapidly to the area.

Each time the operator rang the number back the call was answered, then hung up.

Police had suspicions that it was a hoax call, but officers had to be dispatched to conduct further checks at the location.

On arrival at the telephone box an area search was conducted, no one was in the area and there were no signs of anything untoward having taking place.

A spokesman for Much Wenlock's safer neighbourhood team said: "It appears that someone had decided that it is funny to send police officers away from genuine emergencies, potentially putting other people at risk.

"If you know who made this hoax telephone call, or have any information that may assist the police in identifying who is responsible, please call."

Anybody with information is asked to call police on 101, citing incident number 0439S 271218.

Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org

Telford commander Superintendent Tom Harding said hoax calls were a waste of valuable resources.

“Hoax calls are incredibly selfish and show complete disregard for others who are in genuine need," he said.

"Officers are incredibly busy at this time of year, they are working non-stop to keep people safe and calls made where there is no genuine need for police divert officers away from helping those who genuinely need our help most urgently, and as such waste valuable police resources.

“We understand sometimes people may call 999 by mistake and if that happens we would urge them to stay on the line and tell the operator they have made an emergency call by mistake.

"If they end the call before it is answered we will endeavour to ring them back to make sure the caller is not at risk which again wastes valuable resources.”