Following recruitment freezes across many UK police forces, Wiltshire Police were forced to close their online applications after just two-and-a-half hours of opening a recruitment process this week.

At 4pm on Wednesday this week [23 January], applications to start work as an officer later this year and in 2014 were opened, but after nearly 300,000 hits to the website in little more than a couple of hours, the opportunity was gone for those failing to apply quickly.

This high level of interest comes after would-be officers were told earlier this week that new hires would be earning £19k.

According to independent online police community Police Oracle, there were around 150 roles on offer.