POLICE have been flooded today with similar volumes of 999 calls to a busy New Year's Eve, most of them completely unnecessary.

The majority of the calls have not been urgent, some have been described by officers as 'silly' and at least one has been a hoax as West Mercia Police urge the public to use the emergency services more responsibly and think before dialling 999.

The force reported receiving calls to 220 incidents between 7am and around noon today (Saturday). Only 24 required an immediate response.

Police have also had to again warn people not to take a dip in deadly Gullet Quarry off Castlemorton Common, near Malvern.

The quarry is a known a death-trap which has claimed eight lives since 1973, including two deaths less than a week apart in the summer of 2013.

It is also less than a month since a pregnant woman was warned by a warden about the dangers of entering the water at the quarry. The Malvern Hills Trust (the Conservators) reported that she was one of around 30 people who had flouted the ban over a weekend last month. Six people were again warned on Saturday about the dangers, this time by police.

A spokesperson for the West Mercia Police Operations and Communications Centre said: “We're receiving lots of calls recently due to the hot weather. Cool down and call our contact centres only when you urgently need us.”

Much of the pressure on services has been attributed to the hot weather although police have also experienced what they believe to be a hoax 999 call which they warned could lead to a £5,000 fine and up to six months in prison.

One call, from someone in Redditch, was a complaint about car fumes entering their garage the town's Safer Neighbourhood Team reported. Local officers described such callas as 'silly'.

Another caller dialled 999 about a bounced cheque following a vehicle sale.

A West Mercia spokesman said: "That's not an emergency, however annoying it is."

Ch/Supt Mark Travis, responsible for local policing in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, said via Twitter that current call volumes to police call centres were ‘similar to New Year’s Eve’.

The Malvern Safer Neighbourhood Team revealed that six people were advised about swimming in Gullet Quarry on Saturday.

A spokesperson for 'Malvern Cops' on Twitter said: “Don’t swim or be tempted despite the warm weather.”

There are clear signs saying 'danger', 'do not swim' and warnings that anyone caught in the water can be prosecuted by police under section 38 of the Malvern Hills Conservators Byelaws.

Meanwhile, West Mercia’s operations centre said it had received two calls on Saturday about people leaving dogs in cars. If people do see a dog in a car they are advised not to force entry to the vehicle themselves in the first instance but to call 101 or 999 in an emergency.

However, if the police do not have time to get there, then the caller needs to decide if you should take action.

People who do so are advise to make sure they tell the police what they intend and, where possible, take images/footage of the dog and the names and numbers of witnesses to the incident.