A well-meaning member of the public called the emergency services because he believed a woman travelling in a wheelchair was dead.

But in fact the woman, who was accompanied by a young man, was suffering from a muscular disease that gave her the appearance of being unconscious, police said.

When officers arrived in Barnstaple Road, Harold Hill, at 6.30pm, the woman appeared unwell – so they called an ambulance.

The woman, believed to be in her 50s, “seemed unresponsive but was conscious and breathing” when paramedics turned up.

She was taken to Queen’s Hospital, Romford – but LAS refused to say why.