Twenty-eight sheep and goats were rescued by Civil Protection Department personnel on Monday after they became trapped by a rock fall.

The incident happened in Mtaħleb, where a rock fall trapped the animals in a crevice on the hill.

The department said two senior civil protection officers and four members of its Urban Search and Rescue team worked for two-and-a-half hours to save the animals.

A Facebook post uploaded by the CPD described the animals as sheep, but a spokesman told Times of Malta that there were also goats among the rescued litter. 

All the animals survived unhurt.