Firefighters and the RSPCA scaled a canal in a bid to prevent a deer from entering the water.

The deer, which has been described as a "fair size" by firefighter Mark Laxton, was saved from danger at the Royal Military Canal in west Hythe, yesterday afternoon.

Firefighters used a dinghy to get up close to the animal, and managed to shoo it away from the verge without capturing it in a net.

The incident happened near Woodland Rise at about 2pm and the firefighters remained at the scene for an hour and a half.

RSPCA checks confirmed the road deer was wild and that it had not escaped from an enclosure or from the nearby Port Lympne Reserve.

Mr Laxton said: "It was a fair size.

"We were planning on capturing it with a net or a pole with a loop on the end but we went down the canal and came up to it slowly, and just as we got near to it, it ran off.

"We couldn't have had it in the boat and didn't want it to go in the water.

"It ran up the bank which is what we wanted to happen really.

"It was quite rewarding."