emergency number

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the "joke" call came on 21 February after the fast food chain closed some UK outlets due delivery problems.

The caller said he "had an emergency" and had "to go to Burger King now".

A GMP spokesman said the man put lives at risk by keeping call handlers from answering real emergencies.

He said the call was made at 17:20 GMT and the force had received 74 emergency calls between 17:00 and 18:00 "of which 73 were answered.

The purpose of the change is to eliminate confusion around the appropriate number to call the police, fire and hospital emergency services.

The change aims to improve response times.

The government said all 911 calls will be dispatched from the call centre at the Fire and Emergency Services headquarters in Apia.