Image copyright PSNI

Police in Northern Ireland have shared on their Twitter page a number of examples of people dialling 999 for matters which are not police-related.

One of the posts refers to a caller with terrible toothache dialling 999 to ask the police to come and pull his tooth out.

In another, police were asked if the Ulster Bus service from Greystone Road in Antrim was operating on that day.

Police also revealed in a tweet that they received 500,000 calls a year.

Image copyright PSNI Image caption In another tweet a caller with terrible toothache asked police to call round to his home to pull his tooth out

The PSNI urged people not to misuse emergency services.

Ch Supt Peter Farrar said: "People should think very carefully about what and who they require before wasting the already heavily burdened time of the emergency services.

"All calls to an emergency service must be prioritised as and when they come in, and significant resources are spent dealing with such alerts to ensure public safety.

"Time spent dealing with hoax or nuisance callers can prevent police, and other emergency services from reaching people needing immediate assistance, ultimately putting lives in danger.

"The non-emergency telephone number for anyone wishing to contact the police is 101."