AN ambulance service has said its 999 call service “experienced a failure” on Wednesday afternoon. 

The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) said emergency calls were “rerouted to neighbouring services”. 

The ambulance trust said its national contingency plan was put in place after the failure was noted at 14:30 GMT.

“We liaised with other blue-light services to ensure they were aware and could contact us by other means,” it said in a statement.

The trust said its call handling system was now back up and running. 

On Tuesday, the ambulance service boss urged 999 callers to not hang up as “there may be a delay before we pick up”.

EEAS said demands on the health service meant it was extremely busy.

Marcus Bailey, EEAS chief operating officer, said delays were due to a “combination” of Covid, winter pressures and recruitment.

He said the service planned to recruit 100 call-handlers over the next few months to help ease pressure.