Bologna firefighters leapt into action on Tuesday to save a young female deer that risked drowning after slipping into a steep-sided canal.
The three-year-old faun was not injured by its plunge into the canal near the small town of Sesto Imolese but it would eventually have succumbed to the fast-flowing water had the alarm not been raised in time.
Local frogmen soon appeared on the scene and hauled the tired animal aboard their dinghy, apparently none the worse for wear despite its fright.
It was then taken to a hospital for wild animals in the mountains outside Bologna for checks before being released into its forest of origin.
