Mystery cat sparks Telford rescue search

Firefighters from Wellington, a specialist animal rescue station, were called to the site off Gresham Drive after reports from a walker that a cat was down in the tunnels which run for about 40 metres.

Crews attended at 10.30pm on Thursday night.

They could not see a cat but reported two birds at the bottom of a ladder and the search picked up again at about 10am yesterday.

Wellington Station watch manager Craig Jackson said the team of five did not enter the culvert but used a snake eye camera - used for urban search and rescues - to look inside for about 40 minutes, but did not find any animals.

Telford & Wrekin Council has now been contacted and is expected to search the culvert more thoroughly.

Watch manager Jackson said: "The main thing was there was no animals in distress down there but it is something we will look into further.

"We gave it as much as a chance as we could while we were there but we did not want to remove locks on the culvert as it would be a much bigger problem for us if a person got caught down there."

He said if anyone thought they had seen something in the culvert to call the RSPCA.

Crews from Wellington Station regularly get called to animal rescues - although normally for larger creatures.

He added: "As these were small birds, we still do what we can to try and rescue the animals, although we normally rescue bigger animals."