A 10-week-old kitten used up one of its nine lives when it survived a 20-minute ordeal in a washing machine.

Molly was saved when 11-year-old owner Bethany Hall saw the helpless animal clawing at the inside of the washing machine door at her County Durham home.

The pet, which had crawled into the machine at the Hall family home in Meadomsley, near Consett, suffered eye damage and had breathing difficulties.

But after a course of antibiotics and physiotherapy, Molly recovered.

Bethany's mother Sonia Hall, said: "I was in a state of panic when I saw her, but thankfully we have one of those machines that switches off easily.