A SHEEP stuck three weeks underground on a remote mountain in the Brecon Beacons was saved from certain death by the same caving group involved in the Thai rescue.

The rescue mission was launched after hikers reported hearing desperate bleating sounds coming from underground.

A five-strong crew from the South & Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team (SMWCRT) were scrambled to the isolated spot on Sunday but were beaten back by foul weather.

They returned this week and hauled the stricken beast from its subterranean tomb.

The sheep rescuers were colleagues of the caving team who helped save 12 young Thai footballers and their coach from flooded caverns in July.

Farmer Mark Morgan, a SMWCRT volunteer who helped save the sheep, said: “While not on the same scale as the incident in Thailand, we’re pleased to report another successful rescue operation!”

He said the group was first alerted by members of the public in late August that a sheep was trapped underground on the Black Mountain, five miles from the nearest road, but a search of the area proved fruitless.

He said: “We were told it was in what’s called a ‘shakehole’ - an area of collapsed ground that often gives way to caves or passages.

“The mountain is covered in them and it proved impossible to pinpoint which one the sheep was stuck in.”

A second alert was received by the RSPCA on Sunday, along with a photograph of the location.

Said Mark, 51, from Llanthony, Monmouthshire: “We’ve got a photo survey of the shakeholes so this time we were able to identify the right one.

“A team got together on Sunday but the weather was atrocious so they had to stand down.

“We tried again on Tuesday and this time went straight to the spot.

“There was a narrow opening in the ground, covered in overgrowth, but it opened out into a shaft about 25 feet deep.

“One of the guys lowered into the hole on ropes, found the sheep at the bottom of the chamber, and three of us pulled it out in a builder’s sack.

“God knows how it survived so long - there was nothing to eat down there.

“It was a young ram and the poor thing was pretty traumatised - it was blinking in the daylight as it had obviously been in the dark for three weeks - and it was thin and starving hungry.

“I fed it some treats - a bit of hawthorn and some sheep nuts - and it staggered off to munch on a patch of grass. It should be fine once it’s had a good feed. It was still eating when we left it.”

The Black Mountain lies on the edge of the Fforest Fawr Geopark, west of Brecon.

The area is riddled with caves and passages, formed by rainwater dissolving the surrounding limestone rock, including the Dan Yr Ogof cave complex, the National Showcaves Centre for Wales.

Mark joked: “We’re hovering over our inboxes, waiting for a congratulatory email from Elon Musk.”