A RARE white stag has been rescued in woodland surrounding Mayfield.

Volunteers from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service untangled what they believe was an albino deer from a rope swing on April 22.

The completely-white male fallow deer had its antlers caught in the rope at the edge of a large drop to a stream.

Rescuer Trevor Weeks, who works out of the Uckfield office, said: "You have a 30-minute window once you have caught the deer to cut it free from these situations or they become too stressed and can die.

"On one side there was a sheer drop of about 20ft into a stream and barbed wire on the ground. Luckily the deer had already wrapped the rope round a couple of trees restricting the deer's ability to move about but you still need to be very careful of the antlers and legs flying about."

Mr Weeks described how he and his two colleagues were able to cut the animal free and unravel the rope from its antlers.

The rope was then cut from the tree completely.

"This is the first time WRAS has been called to a white deer which we think might also be an albino deer. The nose, eyes and even the deer hooves were more red then usual. True albino deer are extremely rare but we think this might actually be one," said Mr Weeks.