Fire crews rescue duck stuck in muck but Northamptonshire mum's now missing one of her little ones

Firefighters pulled off a dramatic rescue to pluck a trapped youngster to safety from an underground black hole.

Fortunately, the youngster in question had wings and webbed feet — a duckling who fell into a mucky drain while off on a lunchtime wander in Towcester on Saturday.

But the story did not have a completely happy ending as efforts to find the family on a nearby river failed.

Locals has already released two more ducklings before a crew from Daventry fire station arrived to free the third from the underground soakaway.

Mummy duck had already waddled off back to the water with her other little ones and a search of the River Tove failed to locate the family. So the crew kept the lost duckling company until RSPCA officers arrived to take over.

A spokesman for Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue said: "We could hear the missing duckling down the pipe but couldn’t locate it. We followed the noise across a car park and finally managed to find the duckling further along — after lifting several covers!

"Sadly the mother had long gone with the other ducklings, we did walk the length of the river, so we took it back to station and kept him safe until the RSPCA came and collected him.

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