A DOG that was swept away in Wednesday night’s flash floods turned up safe and well yesterday.

Neil Holcroft thought he had lost his three-year-old chocolate labrador Jess when she disappeared from the banks of the River Gaunless, near Bishop Auckland.

Relatives and friends trawled the river bank for miles in the hope she had climbed to safety, but gave up at midnight when there was no sign of the pet.

After a sleepless night, the 35-year-old newspaper sales executive was overjoyed when Jess turned up exhausted early yesterday in High Etherley, a mile from his home in High Greenfields.

Mr Holcroft had been unaware of the rising river levels when he walked the dog and her one-year-old puppy, Annie, at Spring Gardens, West Auckland.

He thinks she fell into the water when a stretch of the riverbank was swept away.

Mr Holcroft said: “She must have got out and crossed fields trying to find her way home.

“I really thought she had gone for good and was heartbroken.

“Annie and Jess have both slept all day. They are completely worn out.”