Marcin Kowalski, 36, was out walking his dog in Gizycka, Poland, when he stumbled upon the fox, which had wedged itself in between the metal bars. He said: "I guess it got stuck going through the bars and then decided to go back the way it came, making the problem worse.
"The poor thing looked exhausted so I immediately called the emergency service. But when I got through I was told by the operator that this wasn’t the first call they’d received about it - but as it was the weekend there was no one available to deal with it and the fox would have to wait until Monday before being rescued."
He said he had then called a fireman who was a pal and he had arranged for his colleagues to come by with a vet, and they managed to free the exhausted fox by cutting the gate bar. He added: "They freed it and it ran off after the vet had given it the once over, but I’m outraged by the lack of professionalism shown by the emergency operators."