Firefighters took about half-an-hour to extract a stray kitten from under the dashboard of a Toyota Vitz outside McDonalds in Greerton last night.

'Tiny vehicle, tiny kitten,” says Greerton station officer Steve Wright. 'It was one of the most unusual animal rescues I have done.”

The stray kitten was picked up in Greerton last night.

Three teenagers picked up the kitten before pulling up at the fast-food restaurant.

But the kitten panicked, and disappeared inside the dash and wouldn't come out. Firefighters were called at 11.43pm.

'We were there for half-an-hour trying to get access to it,” says Steve.

'We could see it, but it was tucked right into a very tiny spot.

'We had just about given up and were offering advice on what to do when they got home to see if it would come out on its own, and then we thought we would have a crack at getting in behind the speedo.”

They pulled off the shroud around the speedo and pulled the speedo out of the car - and there it was, just sitting there.

'We grabbed it and pulled it out, and put the car back together and they were very happy customers,” he adds.

'It was pretty frightened when we pulled it out and tt took a while to calm it down.

'One of the guys was hanging onto it for a while and calmed it down – but he had gloves on. He managed to calm it down and it was quite happy when we left.”

The kitten's new owner was also quite happy says Steve. 'She works as a rep and didn't want to be driving around today with the kitten still under the dash.”