This is the moment firefighters retrieve tiny ducklings from a manhole after they became stuck down a sewer.

The incident took place on Krestovsky Island, in St Petersburg, in Russia, on 17th June.

The footage shows a firefighter gently handing one of his colleagues a tiny duckling after rescuing it from the sewer.

The man delicately takes the duckling from his colleague before the footage cuts to the mother duck and her ducklings reunited in the water after the successful rescue.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said that passersby had called the fire brigade after hearing them quacking.

The rescuers reportedly played quacking sounds on their phones so the ducks would not be afraid of them.

The Russian authorities said that all the ducklings had been successfully rescued from the sewer and reunited with their mother.

(Joseph Golder / newsX)