This is the bizarre moment a resident stumbled across three crayfish in Brookvale park.

Yesterday afternoon the woman came across the creatures whilst walking in Brookvale park, but sadly just one of the crayfish was found alive.

The resident told the Gazette: “Two of the crayfish died, I don’t know if someone accidentally trod on them but one was properly squished and then I don’t know what happened to the other one.”

It is unclear how the three crayfish came to be in Brookvale park yesterday but after the strange find, a schoolgirl and her father rescued the remaining living crayfish by popping him in a bucket filled with water and releasing him into Basingstoke canal.

The American Signal Crayfish is a non-native species which has invaded many waterways across England and Wales, including the Basingstoke Canal.

The crayfish are highly damaging for the canal as they dig burrows into the banks and displace native crayfish.

For many years licences were issued to individuals for crayfish trapping for personal consumption in Basingstoke.

Now however, all personal licences have been removed and a commercial trapper is used instead.

In 2017 10 tonnes of the invasive species of crayfish were removed from the canal.