MORE 999 emergency calls were made to London Ambulance Service this New Year's Eve than on any night since the Millennium.

Between midnight and 4am the LAS dealt with 1,825 calls - 253 more than last year - an increase of 16 per cent.

The majority of calls for an ambulance were for alcohol related incidents.

The busiest hour was between 2am and 3am when there were 506 calls - four times more than the 120 calls an hour received on an average night.

Extra staff were on duty to cope with what is traditionally the busiest night of the year.

At celebration hotspots such as Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square, Leicester Square and the banks of the Thames, LAS crews worked alongside St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross.

Alternative response vehicles were set up to deal with the anticipated high numbers of alcohol related incidents, freeing up regular ambulances to deal with more life-threatening incidents.

Assistant Director of Operations Jason Killens, who led the Service's response on New Year's Eve, said: "The majority of calls we have responded to have been alcohol-related, which we always anticipate to be the case on what is our busiest night of the year.

"We have used extra resources, such as an alternative response vehicle and staff on foot with medical equipment, and have worked with St John Ambulance to provide 13 temporary treatment centres.

He added: "At the busiest point in the evening, our staff were taking more than 500 emergency calls an hour - more than four times what they would expect to deal with on a normal night."