POLICE said people in south Cumbria were unable to make calls, after a telephone mast went down.

The problem affected O2 customers in the LA22 area of Cumbria.

The area includes Ambleside, Hawkshead and Grasmere.

While the mast was down, O2 customers were unable to contact police on 101 from a mobile.

Police assured the public that there were no issues with the connecting of 999 calls.

A spokeswoman for O2 confirmed that the mast in the area was working by 5pm.

"We have been doing some upgrade work to bring 4G to the area," she added.

Cumbria Police said it received 493 101 calls yesterday, with callers waiting for 3 minutes and 20 seconds on average.

There were 184 999 calls. Callers waited for 9 seconds on average to get through.