Shoppers in Maidstone town centre today may be forgiven for thinking a major emergency is in progress, with the wail of 999 sirens echoing repeatedly through the streets.

But it is only children visiting a display by the South East Coast Ambulance Service in Market Square, where they are being allowed to blip the siren and flash the emergency lights.

The ambulance is part of a wider display by the emergency services that includes demonstrations on how to handle a chip-pan fire by KFRS, a chance to meet the Bobbies at a mobile police station and a visit by the town’s first-aid providing Urban Blue Bus.