A WOMAN phoned for an ambulance because she thought her mother was dead - only to find out she was actually "drunk not dead."

The Radcliffe woman contacted the emergency services on Sunday night asking for paramedics to come round.

She told 999 call handlers that her mother was dead.

But before the paramedics could set off, the woman believed to have died "woke up" and came on the line to reveal that rumours of her demise had been greatly exagerrated. 

She informed the call handlers that she was in fact "drunk not dead".

Greater Manchester Police said that both women were then in "high spirits" after the revelation.

The bizarre incident was reported on the GMP Radcliffe Twitter feed.