If there’s somethin’ strange in your neighbourhood, who ya gonna call? Cumbria police...

Emergency services get countless calls every day, but some people have called the police to report the sighting of a ghost.

As a result of a Freedom of Information request made by the News & Star it has been revealed that Cumbria police have attend a number of call-outs to reported sightings of ghosts.

In total the force has had six calls in the north and west of Cumbria and one in the south of the county, and out of these officers visited five of the incidents.

Joanne Ellwood started the West Cumbria paranormal group S.P.I.R.I.T UK (or Solway Paranormal) about seven years ago. It is a non-profit paranormal team made up of five experienced investigators.The majority of their investigations are private, but they do on occasions involve the public where possible.They also work as closely as possible with people in all areas of the paranormal field. The team travel round Cumbria and the rest of the UK completing investigations.

The ghost hunter backed the police's decision to attended the ghostly call outs. “If you feel that there is someone in your home that shouldn’t be, your first call should be to the police," she said.

“The safest thing is for them to check for an intruder.

“If you know or believe it is a ghost I’m able to come and investigate. But your first call should be to the police.

“A ghost isn’t going to hurt you.”

The FOI team for Cumbria police gave the results for the number of incidents where callers have reported a sighting of a “ghost or ghosts" they also searched for poltergeists – with zero results.

In total five of the seven incidents were attended by officers.

For all incidents the relevant referrals were made and there was no further police action.

The calls themselves were made by people who where suffering for a mental health episode and officers did refer the people to the relevant agencies to help and support the person who made the call.

A police spokesman said: “The incidents referred to involved people undergoing mental health issues.

“Checks on welfare were made or the people involved were referred to the relevant agency for appropriate support.”