THE Mayor of Worcester is distraught after his beloved drake went missing - he now fears he has been the victim of a fox.

Aubrey Tarbuck thinks a fox may have taken Henry, named after Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry, on New Year's Eve, from the back garden of his Moseley Road home in Hallow.

He said: "A fox has been seen in the area and I believe the fox has had him."

When Coun Tarbuck, who has raised Henry since he hatched last year, returned from visiting family in Nottingham, Henry was out in the back garden on the patio. However, later that evening when Coun Tarbuck went to bring Henry in for the night, he was nowhere to be found.

Coun Tarbuck said: "He would never go far from the house. It's awful to think that I have lost him. It's most distressing for me."

He said that he has been out and searched the local area for Henry.

"The farm up the road has a big pool and I went out there to check. He would not have flown away. He was always happy here."

In September the Worcester News reported that Henry had lost his eye after being bitten by a weasel.

The Mayor has raised the drake ever since he found an egg, which had been abandoned by the mother.

After it hatched he named the duck Henrietta, believing it was female.

But a few months later he discovered that it was in fact male and so changed the name to Henry.