Firefighters in Oxfordshire have become fatfighters — having been called out on numerous occasions help lift and move obese patients.

Fire and rescue services across the country have been called out at least 1,784 times across England in the past five years — including 56 times in Oxfordshire.

Cases in the county included a man being removed from a first-floor bedroom of a two-storey house through a window. The firefighters were detained for 45 minutes to refit the window afterwards.

On another occasion crews assisted the ambulance service in moving a 40-stone man, while on another a 35-stone woman was "assisted into a wheelchair and made comfortable".

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Conservative’s shadow health minister Mike Penning showed Oxfordshire fire and rescue service's 56 call outs had cost taxpayers £128,184.