Nottinghamshire Police has revealed that someone called 999 to remove a hedgehog from their garden.

Nottinghamshire Police has released details of another of the misplaced emergency calls it has received – and issued a fresh plea for the public to use 999 responsibly.

The force's busy Control Room handles thousands of 999 emergency calls each month and while the majority of emergency calls are made to request police assistance in genuine emergencies, 999 call handlers still receive a number of spurious and misplaced calls.

The most recent incident saw someone dial 999 and ask: "I've just opened my front door and there's a hedgehog or a porcupine in my garden - can you come and rescue it please?"

Superintendent Paul Burrows, from Nottinghamshire Police’s Contact Management department, said: “The vast majority of the public understand that 999 is only for emergency calls but, despite the work we regularly do in the media, online and over-the-phone to explain to people how to use 999 responsibly, we do still receive a high number of misplaced calls to our emergency number.

“While some of the misplaced calls we receive range from honest errors of judgement to the more unusual, there is a serious point to be made here as every misplaced call our emergency call handlers receive has the potential to delay us from responding to genuine emergencies.

“All we’re asking is that people only call 999 in genuine emergencies and remember that there are other ways to contact us for less urgent enquiries, with the Nottinghamshire Police website - www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/advice - offering advice on hundreds of policing and non-policing issues and the 101 non-emergency number also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”