Two people have been arrested after firefighters had missiles thrown at them while attending a hoax call.

At 11.15pm on Friday two fire engines attended an address at Mearley Road, Brookfield after a 999 report of a fire.

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On arrival the crew could not see a fire but a number of missiles were thrown at the crew and the fire engine.

The crew withdrew to a safer place while the officer in charge searched the rear of the property in case there was a fire.

Preston’s Station Manager Shaun Walton said: “Hoax calls can cost lives. We cannot be in two places at once. While we were dealing with this hoax incident we were not available to immediately deal with a genuine call – there would have been a delay while fire engines came from other stations. Fortunately no-one else needed our help at that time.

“While a hoax call in itself is wrong, it is despicable for our staff to be lured into a place where they are physically attacked for simply doing their job of keeping people safe. Thankfully on this occasion no-one was hurt and there was no damage to our fire engine.”