Busy people are risking injury by talking on their mobiles or browsing smartphones while rushing between meetings, as GPs report a rise in the number of mobile-related incidents.

A pan-European study by gadget protection specialists SquareTrade revealed that 37% of smartphone users have damaged their phones in stumbling incidence over the last two years.

The data shows that the UK is the sixth clumsiest country when it comes to mobile-related injuries, behind Greece in first place as well as Italy and Spain.

Meanwhile, separate research shows that 86% of UK smartphone users had tripped or hit a lamppost while distracted by a mobile device.

According to SquareTrade, Poland is the least clumsy country when it comes to mobile use, followed by Belgium and Switzerland.

Commenting on the findings, British GP Louise Newson said: “I’ve seen a lot of mobile-related injuries in my surgery in the last 12 months, mostly from people tripping or bumping into something because they’ve been distracted by their smartphone.

“Some of the injuries are quite nasty. As more young children and elderly people are using mobile phones, I expect that we’ll see more mobile-related injuries in these groups of people in future.”