A HOAX caller claimed four people were trapped inside a burning house in Burnley.

Fifteen firefighters, police and paramedics rushed to the property in Queen's Park Road last night at around 8.30pm.

A "sinister" caller who was coughing and spluttering reported that he was trapped in the property with his family.

But when they arrived there was no fire. The call was traced to a phone box in Ormerod Street.

It comes as figures show the number of malicious calls to fire stations looks set to double.

Last year, 20 hoax calls were made to Burnley Fire Station, however, since January this year, fire crews have already responded to nine malicious calls.

Crew manager Neil Ashworth said: "The call was really sinister because he was coughing and spluttering and made it sound like he was in real danger.

"But what he was really doing was endangering the lives of others because when there is a real incident elsewhere every second counts and if our resources are tied up then we can't get to other incidents as quickly.

"This is extremely dangerous and we would urge people to contact the police if they have any information."

It followed another incident where firefighters received a report of a person on the railway line near Malborough Street, in the Burnley Wood area, at around 8pm on Saturday.

They spent an one hour searching for the person, but did not find anyone.

And they suspect the call, which was made from a kiosk in Colne, was a fake.

Both incidents were passed to the police, but by the time officers checked the kiosks there was nobody there.

Crew manager Neil Ashworth said: "We do not believe that these calls are linked but we have certainly seen an increase in these types of calls over the last few months.

"Hoax calls drain our resources and put lives at risk because it takes longer to get to a critical incident."