A group of baby ducks that had been trapped underground in a remote part of Merseyside were saved after their mother's cries caught the attention of men working nearby.
Late last week workers on a railway line near Melling, Sefton began to hear the distressed cries of a mother duck on the other side of a fenced-off compound. Realising something was wrong they called the RSPCA, who sent Kathryn Kellegher, an animal rescue officer to the scene.
Kathryn then had to enlist the help of engineers from Cadent, the gas company who own the compound and manage the area's gas network, to access the site. They soon found that a family of six ducklings had become trapped underground after falling through a grate.
