AN adventurous tortoise had a narrow escape after making an audacious bid for freedom by hiding in a recycling bag and ending up at the rubbish depot.

Arthur, who lives in the Blood, Sweat and Shears hair salon in Rayleigh Road, Leigh, was feared dead after burrowing into a bag and being taken to Southend’s recycling centre four miles away in Eastern Avenue, Southend, on Monday morning.

But the roaming reptile - who at 51 years of age is almost as old as the 52-year-old salon - lives in a specially-made home in the shop and has free roam during business hours.

Although he does sometimes “escape” to the shop next door, owner Michelle Shelley said this was the furthest he had ever got...until this week

She said: “When we couldn’t find him anywhere I started to worry. He does like to sleep underneath the bags sometimes and I just thought ‘Oh my God.’”

She quickly got on the phone to council contractor Veolia.

She said: “I told them I didn’t mind paying for the overtime but I just had to get Arthur back.

“This tortoise is a celebrity in this area, everyone knows him because of the salon. Everyone was devastated. If he had gone missing there would have been an awful lot of broken-hearted people.”

Fortunately, Veolia manager Steve Barthaud was able to identify the vehicle and workers sifted through dozens of bags by hand until operative John Bibby pulled Arthur to safety.

He was then driven back to the salon- by another Veolia employee, also called Arthur.

Tony Cox, councillor for waste and cleansing, praised the work of the keen-sighted recycling officers.

He said: “Our waste teams do sometimes find some pretty unusual items in residents’ recycling bags, but I think finding a tortoise, munching casually on a lettuce leaf, has to be a first!”

Michelle said Arthur was returned unharmed, but a “little bit shell-shocked”.

She added: “I just thought Veolia were so so helpful.

“They could have said they would look for him and then not bothered. I just can’t believe I got him back. I’m so happy!”