Under 11s alcohol problems

Morten Draegebo, an A&E consultant at Cross House Hospital in Kilmarnock, says children who are drinking alcohol are exposing themselves to significant danger.

He told the BBC: "There is a problem with their ability to defend themselves. The typical patient may be found in a field. They often need to hide away from any sort of adults in the area so they're picked up by the ambulance service.

"They have difficulty locating where they are because the description comes through from a distressed half-drunk teenager potentially saying that they're under a tree somewhere in a large park."

His comments come after figures obtained by BBC Radio 5 Live show hundreds of children aged 11 or under were admitted to accident and emergency units for alcohol-related problems.

Hundreds of children aged 11 or under were admitted to accident and emergency units for alcohol-related problems, figures obtained by BBC Radio 5 Live shows.

A total of 6,500 under 18-year-olds were admitted because they drank too much in 2012-13, with 293 of them aged 11 or under.

The figures, obtained by Freedom of Information requests, also showed that more girls than boys are being taken to hospital with alcohol-related problems.

Hospitals have dealt with almost 48,000 drink or drug-related illnesses in the past five years for children under 18.