Police called to reports of a baby crocodile lurking in a woodland stream, found it was a harmless toy which had been dumped.

       The alarm is believed to have been raised by a walker who spotted what they thought was a ferocious predator in the shallows of the waterway.

       Officers were sent to the scene with a catching pole to try and trap the creature in the stream going through woods at Foxhall near Ipswich, in Suffolk.

       But when they arrived on Friday morning they quickly discovered it was an 18-inch (45cm) long plastic toy crocodile which had potentially been left by a prankster to look like the real thing.

       An officer who had been wearing protective gloves to avoid a bite posed for a picture with the lifelike model to show it was a false alarm.

       The Ipswich police Twitter feed announced the find, saying: “Unusual incident came in yesterday am – report of a baby crocodile in the Foxhall area!

       “Officers made a snappy arrival expecting some crocodile wrestling… but it turned out to be a false alarm this time (phew!). Plastic croc has now been removed from the stream…”

       Social media users were quick to congratulate the police.

       Twitter user Rab posted: “Wow, I thought for a minute there you’d bitten off more than you could chew!”

       Bridget Burke added: “What a brave officer. A commendation must surely be on the cards now.”

       Noah Nonsense posted: “Nice one. Ready for anything!”