FIZZ the puppy sent her owner into a tizz after wedging her head in a wine rack.

After trying to release the eight-week-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier from her trap, owner Claire Thomas gave up and had to call the fire service.

The drama began just after 3am when Clare woke to hear Fizz squealing from the kitchen.

"I came running down the stairs thinking we were being burgled," she said.

Instead she discovered Fizz dragging a wire wine rack around the kitchen, her head firmly stuck in one of the holes.

"Luckily there was no wine in it," said Claire.

Claire, whose husband Graham was working nights, was unable to free the terrified animal on her own so she phoned the fire service for help.

And she was embarrassed when a fire engine, complete with burly firemen, pulled up outside her home in Balfern Fold, Westhoughton, minutes later.

The firefighters soon had Fizz free, gently pushing her head back through the hole the way it had come.

Straight away Fizz, who is a pet for the Thomas's children Chloe, aged three and Dylan, five, was running around the house again none the worse for her ordeal.

"I felt a bit stupid ringing the fire service but at the end of the day she was in pain and I had no choice," said Claire. Fizz the puppy, free from her wine rack ordeal Ref: H4601/19