The Bolton Evening News has launched a bid to track down 999 hoax callers by uploading MP3 recordings of some of the calls to its website.

As part of its new Shop A Hoaxer campaign the paper is uploading a new call to its website every day in the hope that readers might recognise the voices.

The move is the first time the paper has run a campaign in conjunction with its website, and in the first few hours more than 1,000 people logged on to hear the first call.

Deputy news editor David Crookes came up with the idea after a discussing the problem of hoax calls with Greater Manchester fire service PR man Paul Duggan.

David said: "Newspapers have a lot of technology at their disposal thanks to the Internet and by making good use of it, we can enhance our reporting and bring a fresh dimension to our campaigns.

"The newspaper has been keen to track down the menaces who put other people's lives at risk by reporting false emergencies to the fire service.

"By uploading hoax calls to our website, we have been able to involve our readers in helping to track down the culprits.

"The feedback we have received from the public has been overwhelmingly in favour and it has caught their imagination."

So far three recordings have been uploaded to the website, featuring a man claiming there was a kitchen fire at a house, a man calling to report a fire in the bedroom of a house and another of a woman claiming to report a fire at a chip shop.

Hoax calls to the emergency services in Bolton often rocket during the summer months.