MOTHER Nature came to the rescue of two lambs trapped and facing drowning yesterday.

Firefighters from Consett, County Durham, were called at about 2pm, after the animals became trapped in an underground drainage pipe on Throstle Nest Farm, near Lanchester.

The officers spent an hour trying to coax the animals out, as the tunnel slowly filled with water. When this was unsuccessful they set up digging equipment in a last effort to save the lambs before they drowned.

But the farmer saved the day with his own special device - the lambs' mother.

A fire brigade spokesman said: "The ewe cried out to her babies and the animals wriggled free."