THREE scallop divers rescued a young deer which fell into a harbour - pulling it out by its antlers.

The buck got into trouble at Brixham.

Frazer Pugh, 32, and crewmates William Jennings, 34, and Darrin Fowler, 55, has just arrived to start work when a harbour worker told them about the deer.

So they jumped into their boat and went out to rescue the animal.

Frazer, from Torbay, said: ‘We were going to going, we weren't diving that day so we started quite late at around half nine.

‘When we got there the quayside harbour security guy was flustered and told us that a deer had ran past, jumped on a boat and then into the harbour.

‘He was swimming round the harbour and couldn't get out. He wasn't going to last very long as he would exhaust himself and die.

‘We just jumped on the boast and went to rescue him.’

The three men got to the deer and pulled the young buck out by his antlers.

They sat with him in the boat for about an hour while harbour staff called the police and RSPCA.

Eventually, it was decided that they would take the deer around the cove and release him into nearby forestry.

Frazer, said: ‘He was only a baby buck so we were able to pull him out by his antlers.

‘We sat with him for a while whilst we were finding out out what to do with him.

‘Eventually we figured the best thing for us to do was to put him back into the forestry.

‘We didn't want to put him on the road as the only for him to run to would be town and we were worried he'd be hit by a car.

‘We took him by sea around into a cove that backs onto forestry.

‘He ran off into the forest and kind of looked back as if to say thanks – then he ran off.

;It was relatively easy for us to rescue him. We work everyday in the water and pull things out of the water all the time.

‘We come across a lot of marine life on a daily basis - but this was the first time we've encountered a deer in the water.’

The crew then went back to work for the The Hand Picked Scallop Company Ltd., for the rest of the day.