FIREFIGHTERS spent five hours in an intensive operation to free two dogs which were trapped down a rabbit warren.

A crew from Clitheroe fire station began the search at noon yesterday after reports that the two Jack Russell dogs had been stuck for more than five hours in a warren near to the A59 at Chatburn.

Station Officer Dave McGrath said there were no visible signs of where the animals might be except for the openings of numerous rabbit holes when he arrived.

He added: "But as luck would have it, we went down the right hole." The Clitheroe crew began by manually digging down to the tunnels below the ground.

Mr McGrath added: "We could hear this yelping and found the first of the Jack Russells, a five month old dog which was a bit cold and shaken up. "We had no idea where the other was so we sent for our trapped person indicator, which detects any movement or sound below ground. Unfortunately, every time we dug down after detecting some movement, the dog had gone."

"As it started to go dark yesterday afternoon, the crew called for lighting equipment and then a mechanical digger from local plant hire company Dinsdales.

"The digger did some light excavation work for us over a couple of hours and it wasn't looking good at all. Then we shone the torch down a long run and we could see it.

"We dug along the shaft and got to it. It was very tired and cold and looked like it had been involved in a run-in with a rabbit.

"But I think it will be OK. We are absolutely delighted to get a positive result.

"Everyone worked very hard."

The dogs' owner, Mr Jonathan Dobbs, of Victoria Avenue, Chatburn, stayed at the scene throughout the rescue operation.

Mr McGrath said: "You could see he was made up to have the dogs back. He shook the hands of everyone involved in the rescue."

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