The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) has reported one of its busiest nights in four weeks.

The trust said the number of calls it received on the night of Saturday, July 4, was at points, double that of the last month.

The spike in calls came between 9pm and 4am and coincided with the greatest easing of lockdown to date, with pubs, bars and restaurants permitted to open for the first time since mid-march.

Concerns had been raised ahead of the weekend about the increase the easing may put on emergency services but the EEAST said the number of alcohol related calls it received were not as high as feared.

Speaking to Radio Norfolk on Sunday morning, Marcus Bailey, chief operating officer for EEAST said: “Thankfully the alcohol related calls that we could have expected weren’t as high, a small increase in the some of the calls for assaults but it still was a very busy night.

“One of the messages we were looking at, was asking people to be responsible because while we talk about alcohol in clubs clearly behind all of this is people who genuinely need 999 and phone us for support.

“So, what we saw last night was also people who needed us for different reasons.”