Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash

These images show a brave firefighter that had to scale a 200-foot factory chimney to rescue a trapped falcon.

It is unknown how long it was stuck there before it was spotted, but the bird’s mother was observed to be still feeding it, and keeping it alive during its ordeal.

The incident took place in Penig, a town in the eastern German state of Saxony when firefighters were called out because a falcon had become stuck on a 60-metre (196.85 foot) high paper mill chimney.

Firefighter Rico Uhlich told Newsflash: “The falcon was caught in cables at a height of around 45 metres (147.6 feet).”

It had reportedly become trapped in cables there as the chimney is currently being used as a radio mast. One of his colleagues scaled the structure using a narrow ladder until he reached the bird some 45 metres up.

The bird is believed to have strayed from a nest, and its mother was still feeding it.

The young falcon was freed and then easily manoeuvred into a small cage without resistance where it was handed over to employees of a nature conservation association.

They plan is to nurse the animal back to health before releasing it.

Uhlich said: “We all agreed we had never experienced such an unusual rescue operation!”

Falcons are birds of prey from the genus Falco, which includes about 40 subspecies.