A drug overdose treatment is being rolled out after a woman ‘was saved from death' in Watford.

The “life-saving” naloxone spray treats those suffering from a suspected opiate overdose by temporarily reversing the effects of the drug.

Response drivers for Hertfordshire Constabulary are being trained to administer the nasal spray after a six-month trial, in which three lives were apparently saved according to the force.

On November 14, last year, Hertfordshire Constabulary responded to reports of a patient in her 20s going missing from a clinic, in Watford.

Police traced her to an alleyway off Lower High Street and used the spray before paramedics arrived a few minutes later and the woman was taken to hospital.

It was the first time the force had used the spray since the trial launched a month before and was one of three examples of lives saved the force pointed to, alongside two in Hemel Hempstead.

Dacorum Chief Inspector Jason Keane, who is overseeing the project, said: “Naloxone is literally saving people’s lives up and down the country and here in Herts officers have saved three lives during our initial six-month pilot, which is fantastic.”

There were 100 response drivers trained to use naloxone during the trial and after its success it is being rolled out across the whole force.