Stuck tortoise rescued from chair

A tortoise the "size of a dustbin lid" had to be rescued after it got stuck under a garden chair. The giant tortoise's owner called the emergency services in Essex, when she could not free her pet on Thursday.

Firefighter Matt Furber cut a leg off the chair to allow the animal to continue its journey around the garden in Ramsden Heath, near Billericay. He said: "I've been in the fire service for 14 years and without doubt it's the strangest call I have ever received."

Mr Furber continued: "The tortoise was about the size of a dustbin lid. It had gone under one of those metal-framed garden chairs and got stuck. The chair had then sort of collapsed on it. "I got the impression that it had been there for about an hour and the owner called because she was worried about hurting it."

He continued: "I borrowed a hacksaw from the owner and cut one of the legs off the chair. The tortoise still didn't seem keen to move but eventually the owner coaxed it along. "I'm not an expert on tortoises but it didn't seem distressed to me."

Mr Furber, 41, said he had travelled to the house alone and had not activated lights and sirens.

He added: "I did look in our guidelines to see if we had anything on trapped tortoises - but we didn't."