Firefighters were pelted with bottles when they were called to save people trapped in a fire.

Crews from Preston Circus fire station, accompanied by police patrols and an ambulance arrived at the block of flats in St John’s Mount, off Mount Pleasant, Brighton.

But as they stood at the base of the 12-storey block they said they were met with a hail of missiles.

Crews then found that the original 999 call, which claimed people were trapped inside one of the building’s 100 flats, was false and consisted of a water leak.

The attack on the city’s emergency services was yesterday described by union bosses as “rare” but “incredibly dangerous”.

A spokesman for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said all of the city’s emergency resources, including fire engines and an aerial platform had answered the 999 call just after 9pm on Monday.

He said that after realising the call, which he described as not “malicious”, had been made by people who appeared to be intoxicated, bottles started to fall apparently from a towerblock flat.

The spokesman claimed: “People were throwing bottles from about 12 floors up.”

Broken shards of glass were still visible at the foot of the block yesterday.

Fire Brigades Union representative Steve Liszka(COR) said: “We are only here to help the public.

“This is very rare in Brighton, we don’t suffer a lot of abuse form the public but this is incredibly dangerous.

“There were two ladies walking past with a little boy and a bottle smashed right in front of them.

“The firefighters have helmets on but they didn’t.”