Rescued after eight days! Dog stranded in world's largest man made hole

A dog has finally been rescued after spending eight days stranded in Kimberley's Big Hole in South Africa.

The plucky - and very lucky - canine somehow survived a 700ft fall into the world's largest manmade hole.

The 'Big Hole' is Kimberley's main tourist attraction and is a former diamond mine owned by the De Beers group. It is claimed to be the world's largest hand-dug excavation.

It was actually a tourist that spotted the dog while visiting the hole last week.

He had been seen swimming back and forth in the hole, desperately trying to find a way out, while locals had thrown food in to keep him alive.

But several attempts to get him out had proved unsuccessful, reports the Mirror. However, the animal, nicknamed 'Underdog', officially became 'Top dog' when he was rescued by seven men from the ER24 team.

The emergency medical service used ropes and pulleys to reach the dog, and kept everyone up to date with the effort on their Twitter page:

According to news.com.au, rescue service spokeswoman Vanessa Jackson told AFP the dog was "doing well" although its owners have not yet come forward.

She said: "It was moving around, it was running around and all that, so it doesn't seem that it was injured, it was probably hungry and dehydrated."

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