This is the heartwarming moment five puppies were rescued from a sewer after heavy rain in Thailand.

Nurses at the Thung Yai hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat heard the puppies crying from underneath the drainage gutter on October 17.

The region had been battered with heavy rain and floods so the medical staff feared the animals could drown if they were left to fend for themselves.

Rescue volunteers arrived and began probing the 32ft-long gutter next to the hospital. The team had to work fast because the drain could have been flooded with the rising water at any moment due to intermittent rains.

One of the rescuers, Anusorn Suwanrit, 37, took off his shirt and crawled inside the narrow opening of the drain to search for the crying puppies.

He was able to retrieve four pooches after almost half an hour, but they could still hear one of the animals crying further along the drain where it was stuck.

The brave man delved further along the dark and damp ditch while using a snake catching rod with a noose tied at the end to reach the puppy.

Anusorn said: "We are happy that we saved five lives. If no one heard them cry, they would have been dead."

The rescuers said that the puppies were lost while looking for their mother, who had ventured onto surrounding roads in search of food for them.

All five puppies were given meals and placed in a box on the hospital building's first floor so their mother could find them. The dog family will now be adopted by one of the medical staff working in the hospital.