An animal lover believes fate was at play when he rescued a seagull from being strangled by a coffee lid.

Jacket potato shop owner Ryan Meadows first became aware of the bird being in trouble when he came across a post on social media.

The message said the seagull had litter around its neck a few hundred metres away from his shop, Baked-Dover, in Tower Hamlets Road.

The 27-year-old therefore planned to go out looking for the fowl later on, in a bid to rescue it.

However, in a sudden twist, the bird emerged at the front of his shop shortly after 10am yesterday with the litter still attached.

Mr Meadows said: “Being an animal lover, I planned to go for a walk with my dog later on to see if I could help because it apparently wasn’t far from me.

“Then lo and behold this bird somehow ended up right outside my shop in front of me.

“So it was a rather crazy thing to happen because it was as if he came to me for help rather than the other way around.”

After Ryan saw the seagull in considerable discomfort, the Maxton resident had to think on his feet to prevent the bird from suffering anymore.

“It looked like a frappé coffee lid and it was embedded into the skin around its beak,” he added.

“So I’d imagine it had been there for quite some time and he wouldn’t have been able to eat or drink a lot with it on.

“I could see he was quite a bit dehydrated because his skin was very pale.

“I assume he was being quite greedy and it got stuck - I don’t think someone would have been able to put it on him.

“So I put some antiseptic spray around the area, pulled it off and then gave him some food and water.

“After that he was on his way.”