A mission to rescue a cat from a pole ended up with a village's electricity supplies being turned off.

Two engineers from Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution (SHEPD) saved the animal from the top of a 12-yard electricity pole in St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire after it was stuck there for almost 24 hours.

Engineers Ian Robertson and Brian Barclay arrived after Coco the cat's owners Moira and Bob Moir called SHEPD on its emergency phone line.

They established that to rescue Coco, they would need to turn off local supplies and call for a cherry picker.

The operations manager for the Tayside and Central region, Mark Macdonald, said: "By phoning our emergency service centre, Mr Moir not only alerted us to the plight of his cat but his call also meant that our engineers were able to prevent any damage to our high voltage network, which could, in turn, have resulted in a much longer and wider-reaching interruption to supplies in the area.

"Hopefully the customers of St Cyrus who experienced a short power outage will understand the exceptional circumstances that day, and I'd like to thank our customers for their patience as we carried out the rescue mission."

Power supplies in the area were cut off for around two hours during the rescue operation.

"Everyone in the depot is delighted that Coco has made a full recovery, although I heard she was a bit crabby after being stuck up the pole for almost a day," Mr Macdonald said.

Mrs Moir said: "Myself and Bob are both very grateful for the work the engineers carried out to allow Coco to come down safely."