Two young boys from the Shepherdswell area have been spoken to by police officers after they made nine hoax 999 calls.

It happened on Saturday, July 21, when the calls were received at the force control room from the same mobile telephone number.

The majority of the calls were abandoned but a young child requested police assistance and hung up.

A police call handler called back a number of times and the line was cleared each time until an adult answered the phone.

Police said they believed the two boys, aged six and 10, were responsible for the hoax calls and were given “words of advice”. No more hoax calls had been received from that number since.

Kent police receive, on average, more than 700 calls per day to the 999 emergency number.

Chief Inspector Simon Black said: “This behaviour puts other members of the public at risk as it diverts attention away from those who are genuinely calling 999 when life is in danger or a crime is in progress.

“We record all of the calls that come into the Force Control Room and this can be used as evidence at court if required.”