Ananova:

A cat sparked a full-scale emergency after stepping on a phone and dialling 999.

Watson, a one-year-old Bengal, trod on the handset and then somehow hit the redial button four times.

Police raced to the address and spotted a smashed vase when they peered through a window. Fearing a burglary they broke down the door, reports The Sun.

Owner Lauren O'Shea, 23, an animal nursing assistant, said: "A friend saw all commotion at my flat and called me.

"I hurried round there and the police told me they thought there had been a burglary.

"I immediately said, 'I bet it was the cat'. When we first moved in he would play a lot with the phone."

Lauren, of East Preston, West Sussex, added: "When we first moved in, the cat would play with the phone a lot - so we used to try to hide it from him."

Clumsy moggy Watson, who Lauren took from an animal rescue centre, redeemed himself when he won second prize at a Bengal cat show at the weekend.