A water buffalo was rescued after it fell into a four-metre deep well while grazing on grassland.

Jan Joksree took out his favourite buffalo named Dok-Khoon into the fields in Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand on Wednesday (August 19).

The alarmed owner said he started to worry after he went to check on the animal and could not find it anywhere.

He said: "I left out my ten buffaloes to graze and used a wire to keep them in the trail but then I noticed that one of the buffaloes went missing.

"I walked around the pond near the trail and found her standing in the water at the bottom of the well. She was exhausted and scared down there."

Dok-Khoon had wandered away from her normal walking trail and found itself stuck in the confined shaft.

The female buffalo was trapped for several hours struggling in the muddy water before she was found by the owner who called the emergency rescuers for help.

The rescuers had a hard time pulling the animal so they decided to use a crane to lift the heavy buffalo out of the hole. The process took them nearly three hours.

The buffalo had minor injuries from wriggling around inside the concrete well, but she was eventually safely carried up to dry ground.