Peggy was rescued after falling 20ft down a rock crevice. Photo: Derbyshire CRO

Rescuers spent three hours extricating a dog that fell into a crevice between boulders while her owners were out walking with her.

Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation was alerted after terrier Peggy ran into the inaccessible location when she and her sister Nelly went chasing a rabbit on Harpur Hill near Buxton.

Peggy fell a considerable distance and was trapped.

Anthony Matthews of the team said: “Peggy and Nelly’s owners had been out walking the two dogs when both dogs disappeared chasing a rabbit through a gap between some very large boulders but only one dog returned.

“After some initial investigation Peggy was located down a 6m (20ft) drop that was very tight and would involve some engineering to allow a human to progress.

Two dogs went down the hole but only one came back. Photo: Derbyshire CRO

“While the equipment was been organised ready to be transported to the incident site further investigation revealed another possible route to Peggy’s location from lower down the slope.

“A brave member of the team was able to squeeze, slide and generally wriggle into the position where Peggy was located before extracting the casualty where she was reunited with her owners and Nelly with no apparent injuries and was even seen trying to give chase to another rabbit though this time she was kept firmly on the lead.”

The volunteer Derbyshire CRO has to date come to the aid of more than 50 animals and more than 400 people.