Andy Walters waited seven hours before police responded to his call

Andy Walters, a 17-year-old student, and his friend were attacked by a gang of men in the city centre in the early hours of Sunday.

He suffered injuries to his face and back, but despite repeated calls, officers took several hours to reach him.

The police eventually took a statement at 1030 BST that morning.

Slow response

Mr Walters said: "It was pathetic really. The police response time was seven hours for an attack in progress, which is just not on."

Three other men who were attacked by gangs in the city at round about the same time said they also got a slow response to their 999 calls.

The Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Steve Green said: "Certainly we've apologised to the people, and I accept that's not adequate.

"But I think we need to set it in the wider context - it was an extremely busy night, we were dealing with about 150 odd separate incidents around the Nottingham conurbation at that time.

"I think in that situation it's entirely conceivable that you can run out of police officers".

Nottinghamshire County Council will discuss calls for more officers to be deployed on Nottingham's streets at a meeting on Thursday.