Doncaster Rover fan's Apple watch rings police after goal celebration mistaken for accident

Some smart watches automatically call emergency services if it thinks someone is in an accident. Credit: PA

A football fan's smart watch made an emergency call to police after it mistook his goal celebration for an accident.

South Yorkshire Police said they received a call during Doncaster Rovers' 4-2 win against Barrow on Sunday.

Hakeeb Adelakun scored Rovers' third goal with five minutes left, completing a remarkable comeback from two goals down and sparking the wild celebrations which prompted the 999 call.

In a post on X, South Yorkshire Police showed the call log, with comments from the call handler saying: "Automated message from an iWatch saying owner has been involved in an accident, but from background noise, this is clearly a football match."

Attempts to call the owner back had failed, the log said.

According to Apple, its smart watch automatically activates the SOS feature if it detects impact which it interprets as a severe accident.

The "crash detection system" dials 999 if the user fails to respond to an on-screen alert.