A MOTHER and her 13-year-old daughter were rescued by the emergency services after getting stuck in mud up to their knees while out walking in a park.

Kathryn Harrison, aged 32, and her teenage daughter Kiera, were walking their dogs in Pennington Flash Country Park, Leigh, with another woman yesterday afternoon.

At about 4 pm, they became stuck in the mud in an expansive area of quagmire in a wooded area on a part of the park that is being redeveloped into a golf course, about 100 yards off Plank Lane.

Mrs Harrison and her daughter, of Belle View, Lowton were unable to free themselves, but their companion was able to get free from the mud and called the amublance service on her mobile phone.

The ambulance service, firefighters, police and Bolton Mountain Rescue all attended the incident.

Mrs Harrison and her daughter were stuck for a total of one hour and 15 minutes in the clay and mud.

A police helicopter flew above the scene with its powerful search light to help the rescue workers as the area was shadowed by trees and it was getting dark.

Firefighters were unable to walk into the mud because they started to sink themselves when they tried. They used inflatable rescue paths which provided a kind of stepping stone over the mud.

Firefighters stood on the paths and pulled Mrs Harrison and her daughter to safety. One of the Harrison's dogs, an Airedale Terrier, stayed with the trapped women throughout the ordeal.

Leigh fire station officer Geoff Thornlea said: "The mud was like quicksand. If you stood in it above your ankle there was no way that you could get out.

"All the emergency services worked very well together."

The women were taken to Wigan Royal Infirmary as a precaution.

An ambulance spokesman said: "They weren't distressed. They were more embarrassed than anything because so many people had to come out."