WEST Yorkshire Police has received a record number of calls for help according to new figures.

Since January there have been 27,000 more calls than for the same period in 2015, with the majority of this increase occurring since April and the warm weather of the past two weeks seeing calls rise to new peaks.

Friday saw a record total of 5432 calls of which 1789 were emergency 999 calls, whereas in a normal busy day, a thousand 999 calls would be received.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Milsom of West Yorkshire Police, said: "The present high demand we are receiving is placing great pressure on our services and our staff are doing everything they can to answer the telephones and attend incidents."

"And it isn't simply about numbers and statistics. "Of the 65 people that are daily reported missing to us, many are young and vulnerable.

"By way of example, yesterday, two girls aged 14 and 15 went missing from their care home and were known to be at high risk of sexual exploitation.

"Extensive enquires involving multiple officers finally traced and returned them both safety. Between them both girls have been reported missing on 14 occasions over the last fortnight."

"We are therefore prioritising calls where safety is at risk such as missing persons and emergency calls - and by doing so we were able to answer yesterdays 999 calls in 12 seconds, on average.

"Unfortunately this prioritising has meant that other services such as 101 calls have taken us longer than normal.

"We do apologise for this and will be working hard over the next few days to clear any backlogs."