Police have issued a warning to time-wasting youths who are dialling 911 for a joke.

Bermuda Police Service say emergency operators have reported a disturbing increase recently in the number of prank calls being made by teenagers.

Spokesman Dwayne Caines said: "We have a worrying trend of youngsters calling the 911 emergency number and basically calling and saying silly stuff.

"It seems like it's something of a game. What we want to convey to the public, particularly the parents, is that when operators are taking time to deal with prank calls they are not able to deal with emergencies."

Mr. Caines could not give figures but said there had been a noticeable increase in such calls and that they were usually made after school hours or on a weekend.

He said if the situation continued officers would consider tracing the calls and he warned youngsters that dialling from a private cell phone number — i.e. one where the caller's number does not show up — would not prevent them from being tracked down.

"To the youngsters we are saying 'cease and desist' and to parents or guardians 'be aware of the cell phone usage'," said Mr. Caines. "Young people are clearly making these calls and it's a worrying and annoying trend.

"We don't want to go through the trouble of tracking them down but we will if we have to."

Anyone with information about crank callers should ring Police on 295-0011.