South Korean emergency services shames time wasters

Seoul, South Korea:  An emergency call centre in South Korea released a list on Tuesday of the most ridiculous requests for help it has received, including one that concerned a particularly large cockroach.

Staff at the call and dispatch centre in western Incheon city, which handled around a million phone calls last year, voted for the 10 most inappropriate requests for assistance made to emergency services.

"We've got a roach here... a real big one. Please take care of it!" was one caller's urgent predicament. Other callers had an array of bizarre "emergency" requests ranging from needing help obtaining the phone number of a popular movie star to a plea for assistance hailing a taxi in the rain.

One female caller asked for guidance about how to make her ex-boyfriend come back to her. Another caller informed emergency services they had lost their mobile phone "somewhere on the mountain" and required help locating it.

An 85-year-old man rang the 119 number -- South Korea's equivalent of 911 -- after his children chastised him for having a romantic affair in his twilight years.

An official at the call centre told AFP that they could only dispatch emergency workers to actual crisis situations. "A cockroach, no matter how big it may be, does not make the cut," the official added.

The head of the Incheon emergency call centre, Kim Joon-Tae, said the vital 119 phone line must be used only for actual crisis situations, not frivolous calls.

"We really have to focus on emergencies," he said, adding the centre plans to launch a publicity campaign to reduce time-wasting requests this month.