Wet weather has had a silver lining for hospital emergency services in Swindon.

Princess Margaret Hospital spokesman Chris Birdsall said the weather could be a contributory factor behind a drop in accident and emergency admissions over the weekend.

And significantly there were no reported firework-related injuries.

He said: "You might expect that accident and emergency would have been busy, with people being admitted with injuries resulting from the weather or from fireworks, but in fact the reverse seems to be true.

"The department was quieter than usual, possibly because fewer people will have been letting off fireworks because of the rain and there were fewer people taking part in sports events, which produces a number of injuries."

It's the second year running that there have been no injuries relating to fireworks in the Swindon area.

Mr Birdsall added that measures introduced to counter the expected increase in patient numbers over the winter also appear to have had an effect.

There were no patients waiting on hospital trolleys over the weekend, compared with a figure of roughly ten earlier in the month.