Wildlife rescuers faced a prickly problem when a hedgehog got stuck down a drain in Eastbourne.

Hopes of freeing the struggling animal from the drain in the front garden of a house in Beatty Road yesterday lunchtime were hampered as the creature got wedged further into the 4in wide hole.

Trevor Weeks, rescue co-ordinator for the East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS), decided the best option was to sedate the animal before pulling it out by the hind legs.

Angela Wood called WRAS after her gardener came across the hedgehog.

She said: "It's a good job it's my day off otherwise we wouldn't have known about it and it might have died."

After a 20-minute wait, the animal was calm enough to be pulled out of the hole and emerged as a fully-grown and possibly pregnant adult.

Mr Weeks said: "I can't believe it's a fully-grown adult, I thought it was going to be a youngster."

She was taken to a local vet to be checked over.