Striking firefighters left their picket line to help cut a man free from the wreckage of his car in East Lothian.

He was involved in a nine-car accident, which happened at the junction of the A1 and the A720 Edinburgh city bypass, near Old Craighall, on Friday evening.

Thirteen people were involved in the crash, some, including two children, received minor injuries.

A rescue team from the military arrived at the scene in a Green Goddess and worked alongside local firefighters to free the man from his car.

Firefighters left the picket line

A spokesman for the Army said: "Our breathing apparatus team was on the scene within 12 minutes, closely followed by the Green Goddesses and a Lothian and Borders red fire engine.

"The fire brigade, assisted by our breathing apparatus team, cut a man free from his car who was later taken to hospital."

The man was one of four people taken to hospital, with no-one thought to have been seriously injured.

Lothian and Borders Police said the accident had completely blocked the Edinburgh-bound section of the dual carriageway between the Fall of Wallyford and Dalkeith junctions.

Military and retaiined crews attended a string of incidents during the first day of this second stoppage by firefighters.

Four police officers were taken to hospital suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation after a fire at a flat in Well Street, Paisley.

House fire

The blaze in a flat above a shop broke out at about 0400 GMT on Saturday but was soon extinguished by a Green Goddess crew.

About a fifth of calls received throughout Scotland were hoaxes and police in Strathclyde said they have arrested two men aged 18 and 56 for alleged hoax calls.

A number of residents were evacuated from flats in Brown Street, Dundee, shortly after 0200 GMT after a fire broke out in one of the homes. No one was injured.

A Green Goddess attended a minor house fire in Buller Street in Lochgelly, Fife, which started after a computer monitor blew up.

During a 15-hour period up to 0300 GMT on Saturday, a total of 273 999 calls were received across Scotland and 49 of them were malicious or hoax calls.

A male driver died in a road accident on the A95 between Grantown and Cromdale at Congash Farm at about 0230 GMT.

Retained firefighters, who were not on strike attended but Northern Constabulary stressed there was "no suggestion whatsoever that the death had anything to do with the dispute".