POLICE have taken the unusual step of publishing the last four digits of the mobile phone numbers believed to be responsible for dozens of prank 999 calls.

Sgt Kim de Curtis, from Colne Police, made the numbers public after pupils from Colne Primet Academy made 400 hoax calls in a month, shouting ‘childish comments’ down the line when the call handler picked up.

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The numbers published on Colne and West Craven Police’s Facebook page are 1309, 5846, 4383, 3958, 3968 and 5012.

Sgt de Curtis asked parents to check up on their children and said pupils would be taken to the police’s control room to learn about real emergencies to make them think twice about making fake calls again.

It comes after officers said someone could have died after call handlers were distracted with as many as 40 malicious calls inside 60 minutes.

Police also revealed that a further 18 calls were made on Thursday.

The pranks began in February and have all been traced to mobiles belonging to pupils at the Dent Street school.

Sgt de Curtis said she had met with headteacher Lynne Blomley, who was helping police with their inquiries.

She was also hoping to take the youngsters responsible on a trip to show them the consequences of their actions.

The officer said: “We will pick you up and take you there and show you actually how our 999 call system works and how calls are dispatched.

“We will educate you on what is deemed an emergency, which is what the 999 number is for, how this line is vital to all the emergency services and how it saves lives.

“We will also educate you on what the 999 number is not for and how the abuse of it can cost lives.

“Your ‘prize’ will include revealing techniques on how these numbers have been traced to one high school in Colne and other techniques we have up our sleeves.

“You will also receive a personalised one-to-one with our inspector in charge of the control room who will point out the error of your ways.”

Sgt de Curtis said another option would be for the culprits to be arrested on suspicion of wasting police time, malicious communication or harassment and interviewed by officers under caution.