The police have refuted claims that emergency services took up to 40 minutes to arrive when an elderly man was knocked down in Helston on Monday.

Eyewitnesses claimed immediately afterwards that there was a long gap between the 999 call going in and the first service arriving following the collision between the man and a reversing car in Coinagehall Street.

The South West Ambulance Trust has said a crew was there in approximately 30 minutes, with the spokesman adding that the patient suffering a "minor hand injury" and was taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

However, Inspector Ian Thompson, who is in charge of policing in the Falmouth and Helston sector, said two police cars from Helston were actually there in just over seven minutes.

He said: "From our perspective the call was received in our control room at 11.58am. The first unit at Helston was tasked at 12.01pm and they arrived at 12.06pm. That is a very good response time and exactly what I would expect from local officers in a built up area."

He added that they were backed up by a specialist response vehicle 25 minutes later.

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