A horse had to be rescued by firefighters during the middle of the night after it became stuck between two houses.

Oxfordshire Fire Service said crews were called to the "unusual" incident at 11.50pm last night and were there until about 12.40am.

The large shire horse had wandered into Curbridge, near Witney, from a neighbouring field and got stuck between the two houses.

Firefighters said the path it was walking down had become too narrow but "the animal’s natural instinct was to continue walking forward".

It was spotted by residents after about two hours and the fire service scrambled animal specialists based in Kidlington to free it.

Spokesman David Heycock said: "This was a really big horse that was stuck so tightly between the houses that accessing and attaching equipment without injuring the animal was extremely difficult and removing any stone at all would have made the houses structurally unsafe.

"We managed to get some strops around the animal and with a number of firefighters pulling on them from behind and others pushing the horse from the front, coupled with some words of encouragement by everybody present."

After the horse was about 30ft clear, he added, the owner walked it out via a back garden.

Mr Heycock added: "We carry a wide range of equipment, but on this occasion the rescue was ultimately down to the ingenuity and determination of the firefighters, combined with good old-fashioned brute force and horsepower."