The emotional moment a man was reunited with a dog he thought he had lost forever was captured on camera this afternoon.

Mark Sewell, 49, broke down in tears as he cradled his beloved Max, who disappeared from Whitstable on Monday.

Our sister paper, the Herne Bay Gazette, appealed for help during the five-day search and had a call today after a woman spotted the dog on railway tracks behind her house in Pettman Close.

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The Gazette called Mr Sewell, who raced to the town from Faversham to be reunited with Max.

Fighting back tears, he said: “This is Christmas all at once. I was so hoping it wasn’t another hoax.”

His wife Melanie added: “This means so much to us. It’s unbelievable to get him back.”

Staff-cross greyhound Max bolted from Whitstable and headed along railway tracks towards Herne Bay after he was startled by a loud bang on Monday morning.

Devastated Mark, of Love Lane, Faversham, spent days looking for the dog and following up reported sightings in Thanet, Herne Bay and Blean.

But it was not until Lisa Banks found Max this morning that his nightmare ordeal was over.

She said: “I was in the back garden when I heard a bark. I could see a little face poking through a gap in the fence.

Video: Max and owner Mark Sewell are reunited

“I thought ‘you’re that missing dog’ and then I checked it in the Herne Bay Gazette.”

Mark took a rather hungry Max straight to the vets.