About 15,000 calls every month waste operators' valuable time and block phone lines while others in genuine need of help may be trying to get through.

Police have released audio clips from 999 calls to highlight extreme examples. Press play to hear members of the public reporting problems with a swarm of bees and a lost hamster.

Other recent timewasters have included people calling 999 because they had run out of credit on their phone.

"Every second counts in saving someone's life, preventing injury or catching a criminal," said Supt Rob Odell.

"You never know when it could be you in desperate need of help."

"The last thing you need is to lose vital seconds or minutes because someone has called 999 to order a taxi."

"We've worked hard to reduce our average response time to emergency calls to just eight seconds but our service could be improved even further if people did not waste our time when phoning 999."

The force's call-handling centre, at Atlas Court in Sheffield, receives thousands of calls a day, and staff realise that most of the misuse is not deliberate.

People who have never had reason to contact the police often do not know what number to call.

Hoax calls also continue to be a problem, wasting the time of staff dealing with both emergency and non-emergency calls.

Last year alone South Yorkshire Police received almost 1,500 wind-up calls, a dangerous waste of time for both the 999 and non-emergency staff.

ONLY call 999 if:
- a life is at risk or someone is being physically threatened
- a crime is currently happening or if the offenders are still nearby
- there is a road traffic collision causing personal injury or danger to others.

In all other cases, the public are urged to use 01142 202020.