OXFORD firefighters went to extraordinary lengths in a dramatic rescue mission in May 2009.

The target who they were trying to save: a pigeon.

The bamboozled bird has somehow how trapped in roof-height netting behind Boswells department store on the Broad Street entrance side.

Remember When Sir Roger ran the four-minute mile?

Both Oxfordshire fire service and the RSPCA were called to help with the rescue, but it was only when the fire crew had spent a significant amount of time deploying their hydraulic platform that they realised it wouldn't reach.

Our photographer Andy Eddy caught the action at the scene.

In the end, the firefighters pulled up the netting by hand like trawlermen fishing for tuna, and managed to save the bird.

And was it grateful?...