Emergency services were stretched to the limit across the country as new year revellers greeted 2008 with an epidemic of binge-drinking and violence.

Ambulance services dealt with a record level of emergency calls with crews in some areas responding to almost 40 per cent more calls than last year.

London began the new year with the stabbing to death of an 18-year-old man in a grim reprise of last year’s statistic of 27 teenagers murdered in the capital. The victim was returning home from new year celebrations when he was chased by a gang after getting off a bus with nine friends at 6.30am in Edmonton, police said.

Police in London are also investigating a possible link between a fight outside the Park Lane Hotel in Central London and the discovery near by of a 25-year-old man who had collapsed and later died. Two men were arrested while a third was taken to hospital and later discharged.

The London Ambulance Service handled 1,825 incidents between midnight and 4am yesterday, a 16 per cent increase on last year’s figure and 30 per cent higher than two years ago.

Gemma Gidley, an LAS spokeswoman, said: “There are no obvious answers as to why the number of alcohol-related calls is on the increase. However, at new year we know that alcohol will be a big factor in our workload.”

Ambulance crews in the North West attended 1,013 incidents, up 38.5 per cent on this time last year, in the West Midlands there were 1,400 calls, an increase of 37 per cent, and the Scottish Ambulance Service dealt with 2,288 calls, an increase of 22 per cent.

In Merseyside, where Liverpool was celebrating becoming European Capital of Culture, paramedics saw a 9 per cent year-on-year increase in calls. Yorkshire Ambulance Service received about 1,300 calls between midnight and 9am, more than double the number for a normal night.

A 14-year-old boy and a girl aged 15 were being questioned by detectives in Leicester last night after a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death.

Bradley Whitfield was discovered in a pool of blood about 400 yards from his home in central Leicester at 5.15am yesterday. He was stabbed close to Fullhurst Community College, where he was a student.

Friends said that the teenager, who wanted to become a PE instructor, appeared to have been attacked with a broken bottle after leaving a New Year’s Eve party.

Shane Faulkner, a family friend, said: “We heard Bradley might have been stabbed with a bottle. He was a lovely lad who would do anything for anyone and was never in any kind of trouble. He was just looking forward to the rest of his life.”

A woman aged 31 and a 34-year-old man have also been arrested.

In Manchester a 26-year-old man was shot dead and two others injured in the Crumpsall area of the city at 5.30pm on New Year’s Eve. In Liverpool a 28-year-old was recovering after being shot in the stomach. A mass brawl in Rusholme, Manchester, left a 23-year-old man struggling to survive after he was stabbed in the throat at 2.50am yesterday. A 27-year-old man who tried to help him was slashed across the face.

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