'It's like a war zone': Mad Friday causes chaos for the emergency services with 250 drink related calls every hour

Emergency services were pushed to the limit on one of the busiest nights of the year.

The Friday before Christmas or Mad Friday, as it is known, has become most popular for office Christmas parties but the festivities leave paramedics struggling to cope with drink related injuries.

Ambulance services took 250 emergency calls every hour. On a typical Friday there would be around 200 reports every hour.

Staff at accident and emergency services had to deal with hundreds of drink related injuries while some paramedics said it was the worst they had experienced in years.      More