A kitten was discovered trapped under a car bonnet after a woman travelled more than 200 MILES from Cornwall to London.

The woman heard a squeaking noise as she pulled away in her Honda from her boyfriend’s Hounslow home on Tuesday morning (August 18).

After hearing it again she spent two hours trying to locate the noise, but then called the AA at around 9am saying an animal was trapped in her engine.

Mechanic Max Holdstock, of Sunbury, who was crowned the AA’s Patrol of the Year last week, attended and said at first he could not see anything.

“I was thinking, she’s been waiting and looking around it probably has walked off,” he said.

“But then I noticed behind the engine it had a little tunnel with all the cables and wiring around it. And I wondered if it had gone in there.”

After continually tapping on the ‘tunnel’, Mr Holdstock said he heard a cry before seeing two paws came out.

“I tried to get to it, but she jumped back down again, shivering,” he said.

“She was so scared. When she (the driver) said she had come down from Cornwall and they didn’t know anyone around here who has got cats or anything, we couldn’t work out where it had come from.

“In that tunnel bit it could have survived (the journey). It’s away from anything that’s a bit of danger.”

After rescuing the tortoiseshell kitten, he took it to Willet House Vets in Staines, where Mr Holdstock said staff nicknamed her ‘Stowaway’.

Sarah Watkins, from Willet House Vets, said the kitten was about 10 weeks old.

She gave the kitten a check-up and a clean bill of health, adding: “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with her.”

But she noticed that the feline was not micro-chipped - so tracing the owner would be a struggle.

Since sharing the image of the kitten on social media the vets have been inundated with phone calls from people claiming to be her owner.

Mr Holdstock said it is the third time in his three and half years at the AA he has rescued an animal, including two black dogs he found wandering down a country lane, and an injured dove he found whilst picking up some spare parts.

Last year, the AA attended more than 1,000 animal-related call-outs, mostly when they're locked in vehicles.

A spokesman for the AA said: “Cats seem to be more prone to car mishaps – they like to jump up into the engine bay for warmth and security – but unfortunately, it doesn’t always have a happy ending.

“AA patrols have rescued all manner of animals trapped in cars from cats and dogs to snakes and other reptiles…and even a raccoon.”