The North West Ambulance has declared a "major incident" after a huge spike in 999 calls.
Paramedics are reporting that high levels of activity in the North West are causing problems and the service has asked people not to call 999 for non life threatening problems.
People have also been urged not to call back and ask operators how long the ambulance will be.
In a statement on the NWAS Facebook page, a spokesperson assured that it is doing its best to reach patients in need.
They added: "North West Ambulance Service has declared a major incident due to the high level of activity in the North West region, in particular the Greater Manchester area.
"For enquiries relating to this incident, please follow our Twitter site @NWAmbulance and our Facebook page.
"If your call is not life-threatening, you may be asked if you can seek an alternative source of care or make your way to hospital by alternate means.
"You can help us reach the patients that urgently need our help by not calling 999 unless the condition is life-threatening or potentially life-threatening, not calling us to find out where your ambulance is or calling to cancel any ambulance that you no longer require or feel is necessary.
"We are trying our best to reach patients as soon as we possibly can and apologise for any delays in our response.
"Please bear with us.
"For medical advice, please go to 111 online."
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On Twitter, the service also issued a "Major Incident Alert" and asked people to follow them on social media for more updates.
Earlier in the evening, the service also apologised for any delays that people may experience tonight.
They said: "We are exceptionally busy this evening.
"Unfortunately there will be delays and we urge you not to call back to ask how long we will be - our emergency call handlers cannot answer questions about estimated time of arrival and this call might prevent someone else getting through to us.
"Only call us back if the patient's condition worsens."
