British seal experts have carried out an unlikely rescue – after being called to find a pup in a bathtub.

Rescuers from the Hunstanton Sea Life Sanctuary in Norfolk were called out by a dog walker who returned from Holbeach with an extra passenger in his car.

Mark Allsop had spotted the seal five days earlier in the same location, when the newborn pup seemed healthy and lively. When he came across it the second time, it seemed weak and listless.

Not knowing what to do, Mr Allsop slung it across his shoulder and drove the 40 minutes back to his home in Spalding, with the pup on his passenger seat.

It took just a phone call to the Sea Life Sanctuary at Hunstanton, whose staff arrived within an-hour-and-a-half. The lucky seal is now on the road to recovery.

Faking it up to a bank level

In a China awash with fake iPhones, pirated DVDs and knock-off Louis Vuitton bags, rice trader Lin Chunping took fakery to a whole new level.

He invented a US bank and claimed he bought it.

The little-known businessman who shot to fame said he had taken over Delaware-based Atlantic Bank.

His home town gave him a prestigious political appointment and state media called his business experience nothing short of “legendary”.

But later investigation showed he had made the whole thing up. He is now in jail on separate fraud charges.

Japanese zoo hunts squirrels

Zookeepers in Japan are hunting a group of squirrels that made a break for freedom under cover of a typhoon.

About 30 of the bushy-tailed creatures saw their chance when typhoon Guchol felled a tree near their enclosure at Tokyo’s Inokashira Park Zoo, cutting a hole in the netting that held them captive.

Park workers have used nets and traps to recapture 18 animals but are still on the lookout for a determined dozen of the creatures.