A SWAN had its neck sliced through to the bone when hundreds of yards of fishing line was dumped in the River Severn at Worcester.

A fire crew launched a boat near the Cathedral on Saturday and found another bird pinned to the riverbank by the reel.

Volunteers from the Bishops Wood Rescue Centre spotted a third swan later in the day with fishing line entangled around its throat.

"The first swans were caught in yards and yards of fishing line," said Edward Bird, from the centre.

"The line has cut right down to the bone of one swan and he may have to be put down.

"We get a lot of problems with fishing line near the Cathedral, which is worse because it is a no fishing area.

"We know the swans aren't flying in with it because they are moulting and cannot fly."

He revealed that, each year, the rescue centre deals with several hundred birds trapped in fishing line.

"In this case, it's not that somebody has lost their line, this is sheer irresponsibility," Mr Bird added.

"It's not just part of a line, there's yards of it.

"Hopefully, the first bird should be all right because it hadn't been there that long, but it would have died."

One fire appliance and the emergency tender from Worcester, complete with inflatable boat, were scrambled to help the bird trapped by the reel.

The call came at about 11.10am from a man on his mobile phone, who had seen the distressed animal thrashing around on the bank.

"Apparently the bird had been struggling for a while but he was just getting weaker and weaker," said a spokeswoman for the fire brigade.

Two fire officers had approached the bird in the inflatable raft, managing to rescue him from the water.

"We stayed with him until he was taken off by the rescue centre," added the spokeswoman.