Firefighters are still being attacked by yobs despite having a fire engine fitted with CCTV to catch the culprits.

Since the appliance was introduced to Medway fire station last June there have been three further occasions where crews have had to deal with verbal and physical abuse on call-outs.

The new appliance was brought in because crews were attacked and abused while dealing with incidents in the White Road, Wayfield and Weedswood areas of Chatham.

Youngsters threw stones or shouted abuse. In one incident a firework was aimed at a firefighter.

Call-outs to these areas often resulted in crews from surrounding stations, including Strood, being sent to act as look-outs.

Jim Ramsden, station commander for Medway, said: “Since the launch we’ve had three occasions where firefighters have been victims of anti-social behaviour or verbal attack. We had one incident when the appliance has been targeted by a missile.

“Crews are obviously trained to respond to any type of incident and part of their work is to interact with members of the community.

"Unfortunately there are some people out there who take that as an opportunity to throw missiles and abuse at firefighters which is obviously not welcome and not warranted given the work that we do in the community.”