NEW Year was one of the busiest on record for emergency services.

Whitefield-based Greater Manchester Ambulance Service crews responded to 1,512 emergency calls on New Year's Day.

More than 700 of those calls were received between midnight and 7am, with demand hitting its peak between 2am and 3am when 155 request for an ambulance were made. The majority of incidents were alcohol-related as celebrations took their toll.

The severe weather conditions over the same period resulted in a further increase in the number of calls caused by people slipping on ice or as a result of road traffic accidents in the bad weather.

The increase in activity over New Year followed an extremely busy Christmas with 901 emergency calls taken on Boxing Day compared with 825 the year before.

Telephone health help-line NHS Direct was also extremely busy throughout the Yuletide celebrations. Demand for advice peaked before Christmas on December 23 when the service recorded its highest volumes on record with 2,231 calls. A further 1,706 calls were made on December 30 and demand remained high over the New Year.

GMAS chief executive John Burnside said: "We always expected demand for emergency care to be high and were fully prepared for the inevitable increase in activity, but this has been one of our busiest festive periods ever."

Volunteers from St John Ambulance and the Mountain Rescue teams were praised for the support given to GMAS during Christmas and New Year.