New Year 2013: In with a bang

The county's policing commander Superintendent James Tozer said celebrations had been marred by 'alcohol-related stupidity'.

Cells at Shrewsbury Police Station were full by 3.30am and West Midlands Ambulance Service received five calls every 60 seconds.

Police said one man was arrested following a major disturbance involving around eight people near the Plough Inn in Pontesbury, near Shrewsbury, at around 1.30am.

Inspector Andy Smith, from West Mercia Police, said extra officers were on hand throughout the night. "We had expected the volume of calls," he said.

And Inspector Jane Fitzpatrick said there had been 100 emergency 999 calls for police help in the Force area between midnight and 1am alone – more than one a minute.

West Midlands Ambulance Service dealt with an average five calls every 60 seconds, with 638 being made before midnight – a 15 per cent increase on last year.

Between midnight and 5am, a further 1,291 calls were received by the service, up nine per cent on last year.

And operators dealt with more than 100 calls from Shropshire over the course of the night, handling 30 calls from the county between 8pm and midnight, and a further 77 in the first five hours of 2013.

The service said the majority of calls had come between 1am and 4am, with "a large proportion of them being for alcohol-related incidents including fights, assaults, falls and overdoses".

West Midlands Ambulance Service chief executive Anthony Marsh had been prepared for a busy evening, saying: "It comes as no surprise to us that New Year's Eve has been so busy."

But despite the outbreaks of trouble – and the wet and windy weather – thousands of people enjoyed happy nights out in the county, with volunteer street pastors doing much to help police and revellers in Shrewsbury and Telford.