DEAF people will be able to report an emergency by text message, thanks to a new scheme.

Lancashire police and the fire service have teamed up to allow people to report serious incidents without needing help from anybody else.

Users can send a short text message detailing what the emergency is and where it is happening.

The message will be sent to the current control rooms, who will send another text message in reply to confirm that it has been received.

The emergency will then be dealt with in the usual way.

Chief constable Steve Finnigan said: "Lancashire Constabulary has come a long way in recognising and meeting the needs of the deaf community and it is our aim to make it as easy as possible for everyone to contact us.

"The Constabulary now has a dedicated deaf liaison officer who works closely with the deaf community, as well as a team of officers who are trained in sign language.

"We are proud to see the introduction of the text service and we will continue to work on similar projects to make sure people who have hearing and speech impairments can contact us directly in an emergency."

Chief fire officer Peter Holland, said: "Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service has always recognised the need to provide people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired with a way to access our services in an emergency and have had Typetalk and Minicom facilities in place for many years.

"However, for some time we have been aware that people are much more used to using text messaging and would prefer to contact us in this way.

"Moving with the times will almost certainly keep people in Lancashire who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired safer from the risk of fire by being able to contact use more easily and without the help of another person or third party. It may even help save a life."

The service cannot be used to call an ambulance.

Jenny Harmer, from Deafway, said: "The advent of mobile phones has been a giant step towards equality for deaf people so the fact that Lancashire's fire and police services have taken this one step further and introduced the emergency text number is a welcome and positive move."

People who need to contact police or the fire service in an emergency must send their text to 66247.

The message must be started with the word POLICE or FIRE depending on the emergency.

That has to be followed by the user's name and location.

The text message must finish with a description of the emergency.

A reply will be sent by the control room to confirm that the text message has been received and is being dealt with.