Two week old lamb trapped down manhole rescued by sheepdog

Firefighters were called to help rescue the lamb which had found its way several feet underground and got stuck alongside a narrow horizontal pipe.

In a detailed post on Facebook, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service explained how Crew Commander Gallagher tried his best “mother sheep impression” to coax the lamb back up the pipe.

“When this had limited success the resourceful crews turned to modern technology and used a phone app to imitate sheep sounds to coax it out.”

While this encouraged the lamb to turn around and return back up the pipe it did not venture far enough for the firefighters to grab it.

“The resourceful crews used their local knowledge to try the old fashioned method and contacted a local sheep farmer who was kind enough to assist by providing a trained sheep dog which went up the pipe and retrieved the lamb and brought it to safety.”

The Facebook post added: “Usually when we post about incidents like this we attract the occasional comment about waste of resources so just to assure everyone that the appliance was available for emergencies throughout.

"We liaise with other agencies such as USPCA and an officer attends incidents such as this to assess and we only commit resources if it is warranted.”