31 July 2012 Last updated at 10:00 ET

West Yorkshire Police appeal over girl's 999 call

Police in West Yorkshire are appealing for help in tracing a girl who called the ambulance service to say her mother had fallen and was not moving.

The girl, who made the 999 call at 10:53 BST on Monday, said she was called Ellie, was three years old and lived in Leeds.

She added that her mother's name was Stacey Hall.

Police said despite "extensive inquiries" they had been unable to identify where the call came from.

'Vulnerable little girl'

During the call, which lasted 33 minutes, she said her house number was 23 and her address contained the word "Court".

The girl said her mother had fallen and would not get up.

She said she had shouted at her mother and wiggled her but she remained on the kitchen floor with a piece of toast in her hand not moving.

West Yorkshire Police and the ambulance service appealed for help in finding the girl and her mother

The front and back door were locked and she could not get out of the house, she said.

The girl also said her grandparents lived in Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

Det Ch Insp Lisa Griffin, from West Yorkshire Police, said they "urgently" needed to be able to identify the location of the girl and her mother.

"We are hoping that someone out there who knows the family will recognise the pieces of information that the ambulance call-taker managed to get from her," she said.

"We are treating this situation extremely seriously as it appears we have a woman in need of urgent medical attention and a vulnerable little girl who will also need our help."

'Exact location'

A team of detectives is making "wide-ranging" inquiries to trace the family, including checks on police systems, hospitals, and the public register of births, she added.

Det Ch Insp Griffin said police were still making efforts to trace the origin of the call as it had not shown up to the emergency operator at the time it was made.

Dr David Macklin, associate medical director of Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said this was "unusual".

"With the increasing number of mobile phones used to dial 999 we are seeing an increasing number of cases where we do not have an exact location for the emergency," said Dr Macklin.

"When that does happen, our call-takers do their best to try and identify landmarks or a position where we can understand the correct location."

An added difficulty in this case was that it was a young child who was making the call, said Dr Macklin.