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The North East Ambulance Service is struggling to meet emergency response times following an "unprecedented" number of 999 calls.

NEAS said it dealt with 1,837 urgent calls on Monday - 46% higher than the same date last year.

A further 1,664 calls were taken by its NHS 111 service.

High demand over the previous week meant ambulances responded to only 61% of emergency calls within eight minutes. The national standard is 75%.

NEAS has raised its operational status to "severe pressure" - the third level of four in the nationwide Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) - and said clinically qualified managers will be made available for frontline duties and deployed to Accident & Emergency departments.

Additional overtime payments are being made available and non-essential meetings and training have been cancelled.

Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer, said a "shortage of paramedics and additional pressures across the wider NHS network [are] causing delays in ambulance turnaround times at hospitals".

He urged people to use the 999 service "wisely" as it could delay responding to more urgent cases.

NEAS added it was the second-to-last ambulance service in England to raise its REAP level.