What was this Mad Friday like for the Leeds Street Angels?

From helping people to get taxis home to waiting with others who needed medical treatment, there was plenty to keep them occupied.

But coordinator Katie Waters said it had not been as busy in the city centre as in previous years.

"We didn't really know what to expect because of how Christmas has fallen," she said. "In Leeds, the universities have already broken up and the students have gone home. It was more like an average Friday night for us, but December 15 was busier for our teams.

"There were a few cases of helping people to get taxis, waiting with them so they could find their taxi, and giving water to people who had had a little too much to drink or waiting with them so they could be reunited with their friends.

"One of teams waited with a lady who had broken her ankle. Her friends had called an ambulance for her."

There had been safety concerns in some quarters about whether people would be able to get home while a slow drive protest was staged by private hire drivers that night.

Katie said: "There were definitely a lot of people waiting for taxis and trying to get taxis around midnight, but it didn't especially make any difference."

Yorkshire Ambulance Service reported a busy night, but also found demand had been higher on December 15.

It received 636 emergency calls about incidents in Leeds, Bradford and Airedale during Friday and the first three hours of yesterday.

Across the whole of Yorkshire, there were 2,239 calls on Friday and 357 in the first four hours of yesterday.

The latter represented a 29 per cent increase on expected call levels.

West Yorkshire Police experienced similar demand to last year but a number of officers were assaulted while dealing with Mad Friday incidents in Leeds and Bradford.

The force said it had received 3,868 calls for service across the county on Friday - 2,446 to the non-emergency 101 number and 1,422 to 999.

This was compared to 3,857 calls in 2016, including 1,340 emergency calls.

Street Angels volunteers will continue their work in the city centre next year, with weekly patrols on Friday nights as well as patrols on the last Saturday of the month.

Its teams of volunteers give up roughly one weekend night per month to take part in the scheme, with shifts running from 10.30pm until 3am on an average night.

Anyone interested in volunteering can visit the website or send a message via the Facebook page.