A woman in her 60s endured a two-hour freezing cold wait for an ambulance while lying on the pavement in the snow after slipping on ice and breaking her ankle.

The accident happened in the early hours this morning, when the lady became concerned about her cat which had not returned home and went to investgate.

She went looking for him at her neighbour’s garage, one of his favourite haunts, and in doing so slipped on ice and found herself unable to move.

The accident occurred outside the home of Cllr Michelle Hastie in Boxley Road, Maidstone, who was woken at 1am by the woman’s screams.

Cllr Hastie said: ”At first I thought it was a fox, but when it heard cries for help I dashed down still in my pajamas to investigate.”

Cllr Hastie found the lady and called the ambulance.

Because the victim was conscious and not bleeding, she was not a priority response for the ambulance service, and had to wait until 3am before one arrived.

Cllr Hastie said: “I phoned the ambulance service three times to ask when they would get here. I couldn’t move the lady because she was in too much pain. Even putting a blanket around her caused her agony.

“I was told just to give her paracetamol and keep her warm.”

Cllr Hastie and another neighbour waited with the victim for two hours till the ambulance showed up.

The cat never appeared.