Police raced to the aid of a woman who said she and her children were being stalked - only to find it was model Jordan being pursued by a photographer.

Officers today spoke of their frustration at having been called out to the celebrity's aid when they were in the middle of a major security operation ahead of the Labour Party conference.

Police spoke to both parties about the incident, though it was not being treated as a case of wasting police time.

Jordan, real name Katie Price, dialled 999 while she was in a hairdressers in Church Road, Brighton, at 5.30pm on Monday.

Police received the report as a case of a stranger following a woman and her two children.

But when police discovered the suspect was a photographer and the complainant was Jordan, they immediately downgraded the call from an emergency.

The incident came at a time when 1,000 police are involved in a £3.7 million security operation to protect the Government from terror attacks during Labour's conference at the Brighton Centre next week.

Two police cars and four officers, two of them dog handlers directly involved in the security operation, raced to the hairdressers.

They were unhappy when they realised what had happened.

One officer said: "What are we supposed to do? We had to respond."

Police took the photographer's details and then escorted the 27-year-old model to her car.

It is thought a clause in a magazine deal forbids Jordan from being photographed until after her honeymoon.

There was heavy security when Jordan married Nineties pop singer Peter Andre earlier this month at a castle in Berkshire.

Jordan, from Brighton, and Peter, 32, live in Maresfield, near Uckfield.

The couple, who met and fell in love on ITV's reality show I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here, reportedly sold the picture rights to the ceremony to a magazine and TV company for £1.7 million.

A police spokeswoman said: "Police arrived and it was revealed the woman in question was Katie Price.

"It was established the man was a photographer, his details were taken and words of advice were given to both parties."

Jordan was unavailable for comment.