Senior Northern Ireland Ambulance Service staff have demanded jail sentences for those who viciously attack their crews.
With paramedics in Belfast and Derry now targeted on a weekly basis, the Ambulance Service vowed to press for the toughest possible prison terms.
"We will demand jail every time, said Mr Mickey Hughes, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Project Officer. "If you assault a member of the Ambulance Service, we will do everything possible to ensure you receive the maximum penalty".
The level of attacks and abuse directed at crews has surged by 128 per cent in the last year. Ambulance staff have been subjected to 70 violent assaults since January.
Total attacks on doctors, nurses and other NHS workers in Northern Ireland have spiralled to more than 5,000 in just 12 months.
One paramedic suffered serious head injuries in north Belfast when a concrete block was hurled through an ambulance window. In another incident, youths in Derry threw a scooter under a vehicle as it tried to get a patient with a suspected heart attack to hospital, causing the hydraulics to fail.
Amid heightening fears the assaults will cause a death, the Ambulance Service has launched a major poster campaign in a bid to stop the violence.
PA