Cat uses one of its nine lives to escape unaided from drain

Firemen sent to save a kitten stranded on a ledge below a sheer drop into a river drain tried every trick in the book to pluck him to safety.

As is so often the case with felines, though, the cat had his own ideas - and steadfastly ignored them before staging his own great escape.



Having resolutely ignored dangling ropes that had been dipped in pet food, he suddenly leapt into the icy waters of Lincoln's Sincil Drain.

Then, as firefighters, RSPCA officials and council workers watched helplessly, he paddled along to a ladder bracketed to the drain wall.



Yelled on by a rapt crowd, he emerged from the water and started to climb 20ft up the rusting rungs - surviving several alarming slips on the way.

And, bedraggled and breathless, he finally scrabbled to safety at the top of the drain wall - where he dodged all efforts to dry him and ran off. The tiny black-and-white kitten was last seen vanishing into a nearby coalyard, where he lives as a stray and relies on locals to feed him.

With more photos.