This is the moment a firefighter helicopter plucks a horse to safety from a hillside ravine in a delicate airlift rescue.

The horse had fallen down the 13-foot rocky gap in the Ambrifi area of Lenola, a town in the Lazio region of central Italy on Sunday, 25th June, but the gap was too tight for it to scramble back up.

Footage of the rescue shows the horse in a harness in the four-metre (13-foot) deep hole with a cover over its eyes to keep it calm as it is winched into the air.

Gradually firefighters clear the sides of the gap and fly the horse out and back to the safety of a nearby field.

It can be seen grazing happily in the hay field as the footage ends.

The Italian fire service said in a statement obtained by Newsflash on 25th June: “The firefighters rescued a horse that had ended up in a natural cavity four metres deep.

“The crew of the Drago VF140 together with the team of the Terracina detachment took care of the recovery, carried out in Lenola in the Ambrifi area.”