POLICE have condemned a hoaxer who claimed that somebody had been struck by a train.
A Railtrack Signaling Centre received a call at about 7pm on Wednesday to say a young person had been hit by a train on the line at Ferryhill, County Durham.
The call had been made from a line-side signal telephone and emergency services were sent to the Ferryhill area.
Trains were held up for about 30 minutes while police officers made a thorough search of the area, eventually declaring the call a hoax.
Inspector Ian Griffiths, of the British Transport Police, said: "Valuable emergency service resources were diverted from other tasks to attend this incident.
"This call was made by an individual with total disregard for either the safety of the emergency services responding, or for the disruption caused to rail services."
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact British Transport Police on 0800 405040.
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