A paramedic was assaulted while attending a call after a member of the public became irate about where their ambulance was parked.
Tasha Starkey, who works for West Midlands Ambulance Service, was attending to a woman with chest pains in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham on Friday when she was verbally abused and her colleague was physically assaulted.
She explained in a tweet: “Unfortunately myself and my crewmate were threatened, verbally abused... my crewmate was assaulted.
“The reason you may ask? Because we had parked parallel to their car (NOT blocking the road.”
West Midlands Police confirmed that a man was arrested on suspicion of common assault and a pubic order offence.
He was questioned and later released with a caution.
Starkey tweeted that she was “extremely upset, disappointed and let down” by the result.
A statement from West Midlands Police said: “Paramedics were called at 11.10am to an address in Stratford Road, Sparkhill, to reports of a woman in her 60s suffering chest pains.
“Police were called after one of the paramedics was assaulted by a man – it’s understood they were hit on the arm – and also verbally abused.
“A 49-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of common assault and a public order offence; he was questioned and later released having been cautioned.”
The incident did, however, prompt, a wave of support and many tweeted their thanks to Starkey and the emergency services more broadly.
There has been a wave of appreciation for the emergency services for their work during the recent extreme weather which has swept the UK.
Stories of workers walking miles in the snow to work and working extra and extended shifts prompted the hashtag #thankyouNHS to trend in the week.
Starkey herself had tweeted earlier in the day that she had to make a two hour walk to work in the snow because her car was struggling in the snow.
It comes after a woman pleaded guilty to a public order offence for leaving a foul-mouthed note on an ambulance whose crew was attending a woman who was struggling to breathe, complaining that she “couldn’t give a shit” if the whole street collapsed.