Firefighters over the Shropshire border today warned people not to make bogus calls after an already busy shift was alerted by an emergency call to a road crash that turned out to be a hoax.

The bogus call was made from a phone box in Bromyard Road in Tenbury Wells in the early hours of Saturday.

Crews were already having a busy night with several other incidents taking place.

David James, watch commander for Tenbury Fire and Rescue, said: “It’s a silly thing to do, I don’t know why people do it. On a night like that, when we were very busy, we can ill afford incidents like that.”

Fire service bosses in Shropshire have previously also warned about the dangers of hoax calls, which can take crews out of action, when other genuine incidents could be called in.

Mr James said the fire service was told there had been a collision with people trapped. The fire service said the call was made at about 2am from a phone box near Wheeler Orchard in Bromyard Road.

When crews arrived at the scene, they discovered there had been no collision.

Tenbury firefighters had previously received a call to attend a fire in Leominster at 12.50am.

Mr James said two people in the house were checked over by ambulance personnel but did not need hospital treatment.

Firefighters finished dealing with the incident at the house just after 1.30am, before the bogus call.

The rescue pump at the scene of the fire and another rescue pump from Tenbury attended the hoax.