DOZENS of police man hours were wasted by a hoax caller who sparked off three emergency responses in Nelson.

A full firearms incident was set up in West Street after a caller rang at 5.55pm saying that his brother was running around with a shotgun.

Sergeant Mick Heyworth said: " The informant gave us a name which proved to be false. We did all the usual checks and searched a particular address in West Street but found nothing."

Several officers were at the scene for more than two hours.

At 8.50pm a second call was made by a man claiming that someone was threatening to put in all the windows at the same house in West Street.

Police returned to the street but again found nothing.

About 9pm a third call was received reporting that a man had been stabbed in the back alley behind the same West Street address.

Sgt Heyworth said: "We went back and quickly found there was no-one there. We made checks with the ambulance service but they had not been called.

"Someone was giving us the round around. The calls were made on a mobile phone but we have been unable to trace the calls."