South Western Ambulance staff face abuse and threats to kill on New Year's Eve
One of its leads for violence reduction says some were headbutted
The ambulance service that covers Cornwall has revealed crews faced abuse and even threats to kill on New Year's Eve.
One of the violence reduction leads for South Western Ambulance says some staff were headbutted.
Tweeting as @TheParaCop, Mike Jones, said workers got a lot of verbal abuse, headbutted, attempts to grab and punch and even threats to kill, all in return for giving up their New Year with friends and family to look after us.
He posted: "This isn’t what they sign up for and it must stop".
Mike's tweet was shared by Chief Superintendent Ian Drummond-Smith, who also revealed details of a busy night by Devon and Cornwall Police.
He described the night as "incredibly busy" for all our emergency services with "lamentable alcohol fuelled violence throughout the two counties".
By the end of 31st December, Chief Superintendent Ian Drummond-Smith said the force had dealt with 1,033 incidents across Cornwall and Devon and when he left at 4am, they had attended 400.
Just before midnight, Devon and Cornwall Police call handler Lisa Burdett tweeted: "So far there has been 1,230 999 calls today (1st Jan)".
Just before 10am on Saturday 1st January, Deputy Chief Constable Jim Colwell tweeted: "Morning tasking now finished. Teams working hard across D&C to follow up multiple incidents from last night, plus processing 84 detainees across 6 custody centres.
"Lots of pressure in the system, but we will cope as we always do. Very proud of D&C Police right now".
Just before 4.30pm he posted: "Late afternoon tasking now complete. Number of detainees across custody now down to 38. Investigations making good progress in relation to live jobs from last night. Unlicensed music event (rave) successfully closed down in Devon. Top team effort across the board".