Thousands of stranded fish were due to be rescued from Port Meadow, in Oxford, today and returned to the River Thames.

Every year the river bursts its banks, spilling into the meadow and taking with it scores of fish.

As the water dries up, the fish face death, but the Environment Agency was today hoping to save as many as it could. Last year the agency managed to save 10,000 fish including bream, tench, roach, gudgeon, chub and pike.