More fish rescued from Shropshire rivers after the hottest June on record

On Sunday, teams from the Environment Agency rescued a school of juvenile salmon from the depleted River Teme in south Shropshire.

The agency said 120 fish were rescued by Fisheries Officers after the river began to dry up.

They said struggling salmon were "caught using electric fishing equipment before being put into an aerated transport tank and released several miles away where the river doesn't dry out".

On Monday the MET office confirmed last month was the hottest June since records began in 1884. The monthly average temperature was almost an entire degree hotter than the joint previous record in 1940 and 1976.

Experts warned that the hot weather had already killed thousands of fish across the county.

Mark Owen, Angling Trust head of fisheries, told the PA news agency: “If July is like June, if August is like June, then we will get far more fish kills than we’ve ever seen. There is a knock-on effect."

On June 13, hundreds of dead fish were found in the River Perry in Ruyton-XI-Towns after the hot weather caused low levels of oxygen in the water.

Less than two weeks later, the Environment Agency was once again forced to step in to help thousands of fish in distress in Radbrook Pool in Shrewsbury.