London's Air Ambulance helped 234 people in the south east boroughs last year.

The charity has released its 2017 mission statistics in a bid to raise awareness of the work it does.

Lewisham was the busiest in the area - with 86 callouts, compared to 61 in Bromley, 59 in Greenwich and 28 in Bexley.

Of the 1797 patients treated across London, 31 per cent had been stabbed or shot, 30 per cent were involved in crashes on the roads, 23 per cent had fallen from a height.

Other incidents included people being hit by trains, hangings and drownings.

Dr Gareth Grier, lead clinician at London’s Air Ambulance, said: “Our mission as a service is to provide our patients with the world’s most innovative and effective pre-hospital care.

"Sadly, through 2017 the number of missions where a patient has been stabbed or shot has risen. It is not unusual now for our teams to perform open chest surgery for stab wounds twice in a single day. This would have been unheard of a few years back. But our world-leading treatments means that we can give these and other patients we treat the best possible chance of survival."

The charity also supported the medical response at major and significant incidents including the Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park Mosque attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire.

The busiest borough was Hackney, where 107 patients were treated.