THREE children had to be rescued by firefighters after they were trapped on a river embankment.

The youngsters -- Natalie Edgington, aged 11, eight-year-old Michael Hull and Terri Whitby, aged 10, -- had been playing football in the grounds of Bolton Parish School, on Kestor Street, Bolton.

One of them accidentally kicked the ball over a fence, sending it down the embankment and into the River Croal.

The trio decided to retrieve the ball and after poking at it with a stick as it bobbed in the river, it eventually sailed away leaving the children with no option but to climb back up the embankment again.

A combination of scattered glass, nettles and the steepness of the climb, however, caused them to get stuck and forced Natalie to call the fire brigade for help on her mobile phone.

She said: "I wasn't that scared but the other two were. We were just completely stuck and couldn't move and then it started to go dark."

Firefighters from Bolton Central used ropes attached to a seat to help rescue the three terrified children. The Fire Service boat was also called out from Eccles but was not needed.

The children were cold but unhurt. The firemen took them home in a fire engine as it was only a few hundreds yards from their homes on Bury New Road. Natalie said: "Our ball had gone over the fence into the river and we went to get it back. I'd been hitting it with a stick for a while but then it started to float away. We decided to go back up the hill but there was broken glass and nettles everywhere and we got stuck.

"After about five minutes, we phoned the fire brigade mainly because it was getting cold. They came quickly and it took them about 15 minutes to get each one of us up. The slope was so steep we would never have got up on our own."

Natalie's phone had run out of credit so she was not able to ring her gran, 63-year-old Maureen Edgington. Mrs Edgington said: "I was very worried because they only arrived home at 11pm.

"I've told them not to go anywhere near a river again.

"I was panicking about them until the fire brigade knocked on the door.

"I was so relieved. The firefighters did a great job."