A bizarre sight had West Cumbrians looking up in amazement as the body of a deceased seagull was spotted stranded on top of a lamppost.

The county council's street lighting team used a mobile elevating work platform - similar to a cherry picker - to remove the seagull from the top of the lamppost on Peart Road, Workington, yesterday.

Simon Kay, of Flimby, noticed the dead bird on the lamppost on Monday before the the county council was alerted. "There was another dead seagull lying on the ground not far from the base of the street light, so a Romeo and Juliet style suicide pact is a credible possibility," he joked.

He added: "I didn't actually see it land there. I have no idea if it just happened to be perched there when it died or if something made it fall and he landed on there. It's bizarre, it's definitely not something you see every day."

The street lighting team removed the bird yesterday morning.