Fifty thousand young men and women drink their way into hospital each year in England, official figures show.

The statistics, the most comprehensive of their kind, take into account alcohol poisoning, liver disease and psychiatric and behavioural problems triggered by drinking.

For the first time they include injuries caused by fights, falls, car crashes and other drink-fuelled accidents.

'Victims of drink': A total of 53,844 under-25s were admitted to English hospital wards as a result of alcohol in 2006/7 (picture posed by models)

Collated by the North West Public Health Observatory for the Department of Health, the figures show that 53,844 under-25s were admitted to England's wards in 2006-07.

That is 60 per cent more than the number for the previous year, which did not include injuries caused by fights and accidents, BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat will report today.

The latest total, equivalent to almost 150 young men and women a day, shows the extent to which binge drinking is taking its toll on youth.

Newsbeat reporters spent a night at the accident and emergency department at Leeds General Infirmary, where staff usually treat more than 100 drunks a weekend.

Many have their airways cleared as it is feared they will choke on vomit. Others are arrested after behaving aggressively towards staff.

'A pretty good word for it would be carnage, I suppose,' said one A&E doctor.

'Drunk people can wander in front of cars or buses. They can get into fights when they wouldn't normally be the type of person to.

'They can fall off balconies in nightclubs or fall down stairs. We are using our doctors and nurses to look after the drunk people when we should really be looking after people who are in pain, who are injured through no fault of their own.

'You don't need masses more alcohol if you are already feeling drunk, you need to set yourself a limit and stick to it.'

However, the report is far from the first to chronicle the damage alcohol is inflicting on young people.

A previous Government-commissioned study found that one in five 15-year-olds drinks the equivalent of almost a bottle of wine a week.

In some areas, one in eight 12-year-olds drinks this heavily.

Binge drinking is also to blame for more than 4,300 teenage pregnancies, 11,500 expulsions and suspensions from school and 5.5million lost days of schooling each year.

Doctors have warned that children of 12 are being diagnosed as alcoholics and that cirrhosis of the liver - an alcohol-induced problem usually found in older adults - is being diagnosed in teenagers.

Britain's addiction to alcohol is responsible for more than 500,000 hospital admissions a year.

Drunkenness is blamed for more than half a million crimes a year, from brawls to robbery and sexual assaults.

Last week, official figures revealed that a rising number of young men and women have been going to hospital because they have abused alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.

Statistics from the NHS Information Centre showed that teenage admissions for alcohol abuse rose by 51 per cent - from 8,411 in 2000 to 12,682 last year.

• Half of mothers drink at home three or four nights a week - and many turn to alcohol because they are stressed, researchers found.

A poll for the website Netmums also said 81 per cent of those drinking more than the recommended weekly limit did so to wind down.

At the same time, a separate Government study found that 42 per cent of men and women drink to relieve stress, although men are more likely to drink for this reason.

And among those likely to have young children, the problem seemed worse.

More than half of those aged 25 to 44 said they drank because of stress, compared with 30 per cent of over-55s.

Siobhan Freegard, of Netmums, said: 'The extent to which modern mums are drinking really surprised us.

'It shows many mums and dads are developing a "bottle a night" habit without really thinking about the health consequences.'