A 15-year-old girl from Huntingdonshire has been arrested on suspicion of wasting police time in connection with nuisance 999 calls. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is being held in custody at Huntingdon Police Station. Around thirty silent 999

A 15-year-old girl from Huntingdonshire has been arrested on suspicion of wasting police time in connection with nuisance 999 calls.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is being held in custody at Huntingdon Police Station.

Thirty silent 999 calls were made to Cambridgeshire police's control room last night (Tuesday, February 17).

Police are warning that silent and nuisance 999 calls could cost lives.

Ed Essad of Cambridgeshire police said: "If there are a large number of nuisance calls it can impact greatly on how quickly other emergency calls are answered.

"Those 10 seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

"We typically get 160 calls in an afternoon and when we deal with a silent call, we can't just pick up the phone and then put it down.

"The call takers spend 25 to 30 seconds establishing if anyone is on the phone and then take time tracing the call which is time which could be spent answering more calls.