A TEENAGE girl has been arrested after calling 999 in excess of 30 times and abusing call handlers.

The 15 year old from Wiltshire was arrested on suspicion of misuse of the emergency communications network.

On Monday, emergency call handlers received more than 30 consecutive calls from the teenager who made abusive and threatening comments to the phone staff.

During the course of her nuisance calls, police also received a real emergency call from a woman reporting that her ex-partner was trying to force his way into her home. The woman only had five seconds to speak to tell the call handler her address before the call cut out.

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said “The consequences should our call handler have been delayed in answering this call by just five seconds could have resulted in police having no address to go to and possibly tragic results for the victim.

“Hoax and nuisance calls to the emergency services still happen and could have real life consequences on real people. 999 is for life and death emergencies or where there is a crime in progress that needs the police to get there immediately.”