Firefighters rush to free adorable trapped hedgehog in England

A hedgehog in England needed some special assistance after it misjudged its own girth and became wedged between the iron bars of a gate.

Emergency services mobilised to help the hedgehog after it became stuck trying to negotiate through the gate on Old Station Road in Newmarket, Suffolk, the BBC has reported.

Firefighters were able to bend the bars and release the trapped animal.

"It is hard to imagine how this little thing got himself into such a tight squeeze," RSPCA Inspector Richard Lythgoe said.

"I can only imagine he misjudged the width of the bars, or perhaps did not see them clearly as hedgehogs are short-sighted.

"He was so firmly wedged in between the bars of this gate that the fire crews had to completely stretch them to get him out, and even then all his little spines were squashed down."

Insp Lythgoe praised the "brilliant job" the firefighters did with the rescue.