Rural properties are often difficult to find at night, say ambulance crews.

Sat nav technology is already used, but some individual homes are still proving difficult to pinpoint at night, said the Welsh Ambulance Services Trust.

The idea of urging home-owners to use flashing vehicle lights to reduce the time spent looking for more isolated houses came from a paramedic.

The initiative has been welcomed in rural Anglesey.

Mold paramedic Graham Readey, who thought of using hazard lights, added: "A distant farm, or a house with a name but no number, requires the crew to gradually scan other properties in an attempt to find the one they are after, and this clearly takes time.

This sounds like a simple idea and if it saves even a minute or two, it would be worth it Richard Dew, community council clerk

"The aim is simple, if we could get the public to turn on the hazard lights on their car, it allows us to home in on the property, or the farm track with the car at the entrance with the lights flashing."

The trust's regional utilisation manager Huw Davies said any improvement in response times could improve the situation for patients.

"This initiative will help us reach rural locations, which may not be properly signed, even quicker," he said.

Richard Dew, clerk to Llanfaelog and Rhosneigr community councils on Anglesey, welcomed the idea.

"Rhosneigr is quite a large village but Llanfaelog is much more rural and I know from experience that it is difficult sometimes to find farms for instance.

"This sounds like a simple idea and if it saves even a minute or two, it would be worth it," he added.