A farmer crawled 20ft into a tunnel stream to save two lambs from being "swept away".

Marian Porter, 26, leapt into action after noticing two animals had gone missing during her morning check of the flock. Ms Porter and her fiancé Gary Thornborrow, 33, noticed the lambs' mother standing next to a stream that runs by the field she works at.

The young farmer crawled into the tunnel, which runs underground into the river Tweed.

Farmer Marian Porter, 26, crawled 20ft into a tunnel filled with water to rescue two lambs. Picture: Gary Thornborrow and Marian Porter/SWNS

Weather was windy and wet when the lambs disappeared on March 27 so the stream was high and swept them underground.

Ms Porter, from Peebles in the Scottish Borders, said: "It was really really cold. I had taken off my jumper and coat so I had something warm to wear, but it was freezing.

"I had to crawl for about 20ft with my head pressed to the top of the tunnel because of how high the water was. I never even thought about it. All I was thinking about was saving my lambs."

Ms Porter was able to pull the lambs, which she said she believed were trying to shelter from the rain, to safety.

According to the farmer, the lambs had been in the tunnel for only a few hours so the pair were cold and hungry, but unharmed.

She said: "They were standing up, but the water was up to their necks. If they had been sweet further it would have been bad. They couldn't have been in there long because they would have been swept away."

The animals were quickly taken into the warmth of the farm and fed by their mother.

Ms Porter said: "They seemed happy, they were hungry because they had been gone for a while, so we took them to their mum to eat."

Scottish farmer crawled 20ft into tunnel filled with water to rescue two lambs from being 'swept away'

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