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Neighbours in a Russian apartment block smashed a hole in the pavement after they heard the noise of a cat coming from recently lain concrete.

After spending more than a week trying to find the people responsible for the mishap, the residents gave up and took the task into their own hands.

The drama started when the people living in the apartment block in the city of Yekaterinburg heard the sounds of a cat but couldn't quite locate where it was coming from.

(Image: CEN)

Eventually they realised that work to put down a new concrete surface on a pavement outside the property had left the cat sealed in the narrow space underneath.

Resident Ramiro Sokolov, 39, said: "I and some of the other neighbours rang the council but they said they weren't to blame and passed us onto the works office. They said they weren't to blame either, and had subcontracted it out to a private company.

"When we traced them, they also said they couldn't help as they needed the council's permission to dig the pavement up again. But then we couldn't find in the council exactly who should authorise permission – at least in time to save the animal.

"And in the meantime, the cries of the cats were getting weaker and weaker."

In the end a small group of the neighbours had put up a plastic cover and set to work with the tools they had at home to try and break through the concrete slab.

(Image: CEN)

Sokolov said: "It took four to five hours because we just didn't have the tools, most of the electrical stuff we had was for making small holes in the wall, not breaking open a massive steel reinforced concrete slab. Eventually someone managed to find a sledgehammer and a metal spike, and it was faster after that."

Once a small gap appeared the grey coloured cat was exposed, and one of the rescuers put his hand inside and pulled out the dehydrated animal.

It was then taken home and given milk and fish by one of the rescuers before it was finally reunited with its owner the next day.

The owner said: "I had lost her 10 days ago, I didn't know where she was and it's great to have her back. I'm really grateful to all those people who got involved, and I have no idea how she ended up in the space under the walkway. I assume she must have been looking for mice."