Four fire crews were sent to rescue a cow from a dyke in a rescue which lasted nearly three hours.

The animal, which was stuck in the water close to the Marsh Lane level crossing near Worlingham, had to be sedated by firefighters before being moved.

A spokesman for the Suffolk Fire and Rescue service said: “We got a call asking if we could help release a cow which was stuck.

“There was difficult access to the dyke and efforts were being made to free the cow. We had to sedate the animal and after that they were able to get in there and get the cow out of the dyke.”

The fire service got the call at around 9.30pm last night and were not able to free the cow until just after midnight.

Four vehicles attended the call out, with one crew from Beccles, and three, including the specialist off-road Unimog, from Lowestoft South.