THREE swans were in a flap when they woke up to find themselves trapped in ice on a frozen canal.

The cygnets were stuck in the deep freeze by a severe frost on the Leeds to Liverpool canal at Church early yesterday.

But caring firefighters winged their way to the scene and rescued the frightened birds by chipping away at the ice and coaxing them out of the water with bread.

Accrington fire station commander Mick Holmes said: "We got a call from someone walking along the canal bank who said there were three cygnets in the canal which couldn't move. We sent an engine up and broke the ice around the birds.

"Then the lads enticed them to the bank with some bread.

"The RSPCA checked them over and a British Waterways barge smashed up the ice."

RSPCA Inspector Andy Kench added: "I've been in this job for 15 years and I've never known swans to get stuck in the ice before.

"But it's happening all around Lancashire at the moment with ponds and canals freezing over.

"It must have been a very quick and very deep frost for the swans to get trapped without waking up, but the three of them seem to be okay."

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