TOKYO - JAPANESE police arrested a woman for making more than 7,000 emergency telephone calls because an officer did not take her initial complaint seriously, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old was arrested on Tuesday on charges of obstructing police work, a police spokesman in western Osaka said.

She made 7,177 calls during the day or night between Sept 14 and Oct 13 this year, sometimes shouting 'drop dead' at police, he said.

The woman first called in 2005 to say she had been hit by a man, but the officer who answered her call 'did not take the allegation seriously, because what she said was hard to understand,' he said.

'She apparently had a grudge against police officials,' he said.