A Trowbridge cat owner needed nine lives himself when he got trapped on a roof trying to rescue his moggy.

The man climbed out of a skylight at his first-floor flat on Avenue Road in the early hours of last Thursday morning in an attempt to bring the cat back inside.

However, after passing the errant feline back to his girlfriend inside he found himself unable to climb back up the pitched roof, which was slippery following a rainfall.

He sat there getting colder until eventually the couple decided their only option was to call the fire service.

Guy Tadman, watch manager at Trowbridge Fire Station, led the crew who used a 12-metre ladder to bring the red-faced rescuer back to earth.

Mr Tadman said: “He had been there about an hour when we got there at 2.20am.

“He was a little bit embarrassed and a bit cold, as he wasn’t dressed for that time of night in just jeans and a T-shirt.

“It was a quick job for us to get him back down, and the cat was fine; he was able to pass the cat back through the skylight to his girlfriend, but he just couldn’t climb up himself.”