A cat gave a taxi driver quite the shock after travelling “over 500 miles” trapped in his vehicle’s grille.

Tom Hutchings, 32, from Tonyrefail, Rhondda Cynon Taf, told Sky News he “jumped a mile” when he discovered the cat.

“The next 10 minutes was me trying to figure out how to get the cat out,” he said.

“I still to this day can’t understand how he got in there.”

Mr Hutchings believes the cat travelled over 500 miles – and that’s only on the morning it was discovered.

“Me and the missus were working it out the other day… probably just over 500 miles,” he explained.

“It’s really scary to think it could have been in there for days. Just that day in particular I’d been back and forth – Bristol, Llanelli, and up into the Valleys.”

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Mr Hutchings only set up Tommy’s Taxis in the last couple of months and he said it was “crazy” something like this had happened already.

“I don’t think these things happen very often,” he said.

The cat was “quite stressed out” during the attempt to rescue her from inside the grille and “she was clawing away at [Mr Hutchings’] hand”.

Gizmo the cat was “quite happy” when she was finally freed.

“She climbed onto my shoulder when I got her out,” Mr Hutchings added.

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Gizmo was from Miskin, around 10 miles from Tonyrefail in South Wales.

“I hadn’t been to Miskin in weeks so it’s not like I’d gone there and it’s jumped in,” Mr Hutchings said.

“I hadn’t been there in ages so I have no idea how it got in my car.

“I spoke to the vets afterwards and that’s when they told me the name and it had been missing for a week.”

The owner was “very thankful and happy” to be reunited with their feline friend.

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