A FIRM in Hartlebury was just one of those sent thousands of unsolicitated emails by Redditch Council.

When staff at the firm on Hartlebury Trading Estate switched on their computers on Thursday morning, they found they had been sent almost 6,000 duplicate emails from the council's server.

One worker, Debbie Walker, said when she logged off her system the previous evening she had already received some 200 copies of the same email requesting information about the ethnic origin of the firm's employees.

And when she returned the following morning, she found her system clogged with the same emails and was receiving between 10 and 15 per minute.

"The distribution list was massive," she said.

Mrs Walker tried to phone the council's IT department but was mistakenly transferred to the print room, who could not help.

But a council spokesman said: "On Wednesday afternoon, we became aware a group of companies on our circulation list were receiving the same email.

''We acted immediately to address the problem and closed down our server.

"Further investigations showed the problem didn't start at the council's system and our IT team has been liasing with those affected.''