EMERGENCY calls are being handled faster than ever by police in North Yorkshire.

New figures show that in the past few months the force has responded to more 999 calls within ten seconds.

Between October and December, more than 90 per cent of calls were answered within this time – compared with 80 per cent between April and June, after extra staff were drafted in.

From October to December, the average time to answer an emergency call fell to about 4.7 seconds from more than six seconds in August, and about nine seconds the previous year.

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said the force was delighted with the results.

He said: "Both management and staff have been working hard to achieve this improvement and will be working equally hard to make sure that we maintain this level of service."