Staff at Wickes Building Supplies warehouse, in Lottbridge Drove, noticed the trapped sparrowhawk flying around the building on Thursday March 13, and phoned East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS).

When the store closed at 8pm, rescuers from WRAS were waiting to catch the bird.

As the sparrowhawk is frightened of the dark, rescuers positioned nets on different sides of the store and turned the lights out.

Trevor Weeks, founder of WRAS, said, "As these birds are frightened of the dark, they normally flutter to the ground, but with so many high up pipes and signs the bird just flew to the nearest sign and stopped flying, which wasn't what we hoped.

"Luckily the bird was low enough for us to disturb with a pole and slowly, bit by bit, the bird flew to lower and lower perches until eventually rescuer Tony Neads and myself were able to catch the bird in two nets as it sat on a low sign."

The staff were worried that if the bird was not caught it would have set off alarms through the night, and were relieved when it was rescued.

The sparrowhawk was not immediately released due to it being dark, so the bird was returned to WRAS's casualty care unit in Horsebridge for the night and was released the next day.

Tony Neads, rescuer, said, "It amazes me that these powerful and skilful birds are so frightened of the dark.

"It was amazing to see how majestically the bird was able to manoeuvre round the wires, signs and beams in the store when the lights were on and then so reluctant to fly when the warehouse was plunged into darkness."