Ordeal of Yorkshire Terrier trapped on lift top

With his harness and extending lead tangled in the lift mechanism, terrified Bambi was carried on top of the lift from the fifth floor to the second.

Frantic pet owner Georgette Jones said later: "I was going to take Bambi and his brother Squeaky out for their walk. I walked out from my flat.

"The lift was there and Bambi walked straight in. But someone had pressed for the lift and it went down with Bambi in it.

"It was terrible. I was frantic.

"I still had hold of the other end of the lead ...

"I went down and he was trapped. All I could see was his rear and his legs. I could reach him and feel his heart was still beating. But I couldn't get him free.

"I called for a neighbour to get the vet or the fire brigade or someone.

"I just held him up and tried to comfort him while we waited."

Sub Officer Peter Everett turned up with firefighters Danny Sands, Ian Molnar, Graham Leggatt and Mark Mitchell.

They had to switch off and immobilise the lift then cut Bambi's harness and lead to get the tiny two year-old free. Eventually, Bambi emerged, frightened but with only a scratch on his right foreleg as evidence of his ordeal.

Danny said: "It was lucky the lead was the extending type and he had a harness not a collar or he would have been strangled."

After a sip of that classic remedy for shock, sweet tea, Bambi had recovered his composure sufficiently to wander to his food bowl and Georgette knew she could phone and save the vet an unnecessary visit.

She told grinning firefighters whose colleagues had freed a Jack Russell from a drain only days before: "Thank you SO much. I am so grateful to you."