A young angler who spotted a raccoon while fishing in a Knypersley pond has talked about his experience of catching the creature on video.

Biddulph Nub News reported recently how 16-year-old Louis Windle, who regularly fishes at Biddulph's open cast ponds, was surprised to see the unusual animal during one of his fishing trips on Monday night.

Luckily, he was quick enough to take video footage of the raccoon, which can be seen above.

Now Louis has spoken to Nub News about his interaction with the "really friendly" animal.

He said: "Me and another guy were down at the pond having a chat, and at one point he suddenly said 'what's that?'

"We looked and we could see a little head popping up in the water. We managed to get dead close to it, and it kept coming closer and closer.

"We thought it was a badger at first, but then my mate said 'it's a raccoon!'"

They even managed to give the raccoon a snack, as Louis explained: "It was really friendly, and we even managed to feed him some sweetcorn that we had brought along as bait for the fish!

"He was just having a bath and chilling out, washing himself in the water. He was next to a little hole that we think he's living in.

"After that we left, but we came back and he was there again the next time too, although the last time we went we didn't manage to see him."

Discussing where the raccoon might have come from, Louis added: "I'd guess that it was an escaped pet, because it's too friendly to be anything else.

"We rang the RSPCA, but they didn't seem bothered about it, which was a shame."

Raccoons are nocturnal mammals native to southern Canada, most of the United States, Central America and northern parts of South America, but not native to the UK.

There are strict restrictions on keeping them as pets in the UK and they can no longer be legally bred or sold. Anyone who already owned a raccoon before the regulations were introduced in August 2016 is allowed to keep them.

Biddulph Nub News contacted the RSPCA for comment yesterday, but has not yet received a response.