Emergency services on 'New Year's Eve level'

Emergency services were under pressure levels "usually only seen on New Year's Eve" last night as they coped with the chaos across the capital.

The London Ambulance Service said the sudden snow storms led to a surge in calls. Staff had 5,350 calls by 9.30pm. A spokesman said the service was put on "pressure level five" at about 8pm, near the top of the scale of one to six.

On the same day last week, the LAS took 3,685 emergency calls.

Paramedics were forced to stop responding to lower priority calls and asked people to dial 999 only if there was a "serious emergency".

A spokesman said: "The snow and wintry conditions presented a real challenge for us as the call rate was extremely high."

Police were inundated by non-emergency calls from people asking for travel information or for help starting their cars.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "People calling 999 for non-emergencies are making it more difficult for us to respond to genuine emergencies."