ELVIS the lamb left firefighters lost for words when he made a dash for a 70ft clifftop - moments after they had rescued him from a ledge 10ft down.

Bent on doing it My Way again, it was Now or Never as the wayward lamb came within inches of the precipitous drop.

But he was forced to Surrender when a bystander tackled him to the ground.

Bill Forster, acting station officer at Hebburn fire station, South Tyneside, said the drama began when a walker spotted the lamb - dubbed Elvis by firefighters - making his way, lonesome on Friday night, along the top of the cliff at Bill Quay, near Gateshead.

When Elvis disappeared, the walker went to investigate and found him on a narrow ledge, 10ft from the top - with a further 60ft drop below him.

ASO Forster said: "The lamb had either fallen or scampered down. The walker decided to return in an hour to see if he had found its way back up. But the lamb was still there - seemingly quite content and refusing to budge."

Firefighter Neil Hanlon was lowered on a rope to coax Elvis back up. When he refused to move, he was manhandled to the top.

ASO Forster said: "No sooner had he been recovered, than he ran straight back for the cliff top. We thought we were going to lose him again, but bystander Michael Maughan made a rugby tackle and managed to pin him down.

"He agreed to carry him back to Bill Quay Community Farm," said the firefighter, a sort of Return to Sender.

"We thought about calling it Cliff after its clifftop escapade, but decided on Elvis as it was the anniversary of the singer's death."

Elvis is now back on the Green Green Grass Of Home, no doubt kept in his place by a Hound Dog.