A GWENT woman whose dog got stuck in an animal burrow in Gaer, Newport, praised children and firemen who helped rescue him.

Heidi Joyce, from Abersychan, took her Patterdale terrier Broc for a walk at 7.30pm on Monday evening after visiting her mother Norma.

"He disappeared into gorse bushes and I went to look for him. He'd gone down a hole and couldn't seem to get out," said Ms Joyce.

"I went back to mum's for a torch and some children saw what was happening. They asked if they could help, ran off to get more torches and came back with parents and spades."

After attempts to dig him out, the fire service was called and Broc was freed at around 9pm.

"I'd been getting frantic and he was very disorientated afterwards. I didn't say thank you properly, but I want to let people know he was all right because those who came out were marvellous.

"You hear so many negative stories about young people these days, but the children were fantastic and so were the fire service. I can't thank them enough."