NEW Year's Eve was a hectic night for ambulance crews who had to deal with hundreds of drunken patients, alcohol fuelled assaults and bottle attacks while everyone else saw in the New Year with friends and family.

Between 10pm on December 31 and 9am on January 1, Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS), which covers Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and the former Avon area, was called to 130 assaults, 72 excess drinking incidents, seven stabbings and seven glass attacks.

In Gloucestershire the ambulance service was called out 124 times in the same nine hour period, mainly to incidents relating to alcohol - double the amount of calls they would usually receive on a Saturday night.

A spokeswoman for GWAS said: "Overall this was similar to last year but we found the jobs were more spread out, calls were still coming in until 9am New Year's morning.

"However, despite this we were really well prepared with lots of extra crews and we would like to thank all our staff for the hard work they put in during the night.

"It is a difficult night to work with lots of drunken people and sometimes they can get aggressive, which is difficult to deal with."

In Wotton-under-Edge an ambulance was called to a house at 11.30pm where a teenager, who had drunk a bottle of vodka, was unconscious. The 16-year-old girl was taken to Frenchay Hospital for treatment.

In Yate a 15-year-old girl needed medical attention after drinking excessive amounts of wine mixed with other alcohol at a party. The crew was called out to the flat at 3am and treated the girl on the scene. When leaving the property they found a man on the ground with facial injuries who also needed treating.

A woman was assaulted in Chapel Street, Thornbury, half an hour after the stroke of midnight. The woman in her 40s was taken to Frenchay Hospital with a bloody nose and mouth.

At the Huntsman Inn, in Gloucester Road, Thornbury, a woman collapsed at around 1.45am and was taken to hospital.

An ambulance crew was also called to the High Street, in Thornbury, to attend to a man who was seen lying on the pavement. However, when they arrived he was not there.

"This kind of thing is a common occurrence," said a GWAS spokeswoman. "Often by the time the ambulance get to them they have staggered off. This is a waste of our time."

She added: "This year crews went to a lot of domestic premises as well as pubs and clubs and there was a high number of assaults and glass attacks.

"The number of young drinkers we treat has been growing for some years and we are still seeing a lot of it."