A FOUR-WEEK-OLD puppy was flushed out of a drainpipe by firefighters after he fell in a drain.

The tiny Jack Russell pup fell into the hole after a manhole cover was removed in the back yard of a house in Eldon Lane, near Bishop Auckland.

The animal, which has not yet been named, climbed into a sewer pipe attached to the house, but was unable to turn around and climb out.

His owner, Michelle Thompson, and friend Donna Tranter, who lives nearby, tried to free the animal before calling the fire service at lunchtime yesterday.

Firefighters tried to coax the puppy out by using its mother Lass, who was trying to get to her offspring.

When that failed, they flushed him out by pushing water down the pipe.

A fire service spokesman said: “The puppy fell out with the liquid.

He was tiny, the size of your hand.”

Miss Thompson praised the fire service for rescuing her pet and said: “I went to work at 6am and when I came home at midday, someone had let the puppies out of their kennel and removed the manhole cover.

“I do not know how long he had been down there, but I could hear him yelping. He is the fattest one of the litter. If it had been any of the others, I do not think they would have survived.”

The puppy was not injured during the ordeal and was reunited with Lass and his four siblings after being cleaned.