Dog owner searches for hero who rescued her Crufts star bulldog from under a train

A bulldog called Lucky who stars at Crufts was saved after falling under a train... and now his owner has launched a search for the off-duty soldier who rescued him.

Dental hygienist Emma Smith-Scannell, 48, from Brighton, was stepping off the Gatwick Express at Victoria station on her way to work when her five-year-old dog jumped out of the carriage.

Lucky — who regularly goes to Crufts where he appears on the bulldog stand as an example of a fit and athletic pedigree — just touched the rain-soaked platform with his paws when he slipped backwards and disappeared under the train.

A distraught Mrs Smith-Scannell was trying to keep hold of Lucky and away from the tracks when a soldier and a woman station guard rushed over to hoist up the nearly four-stone dog. She said: “It was awful, it was so traumatic.

“It happened within a split second. I was hanging onto Lucky and this guy came out of nowhere and got straight down onto the platform and held him. He was amazing.

“The man said he was going to get down and under the train. The guard came over and said ‘you can’t be going down there’. He said ‘I’m not leaving the dog and I’m not moving — I’m a soldier!’

“The guard then got down on the floor and the soldier told her what to do. She got her arm under his back legs and he got his arm under his front legs and they hoisted him out. Lucky jumped up onto the platform and shook his head and covered everyone in slobber.

“I’m still in trauma — Lucky’s not. He was fine afterwards. We trotted off to Oxford Circus and he was running around as normal. He wasn’t aware of what he’d done to me at all. That dog means the world to me.”

Mrs Smith-Scannell said she had received an outpouring of messages from friends and fans of the bulldog who has his own Instagram account. Lucky is also the first bulldog in the UK to officially compete in the dog relay competition called Flyball.

Mrs Smith-Scannell said she was too upset after the incident, last Wednesday at 8.30am, to properly thank the soldier and guard but is now appealing for them to come forward so she can.

“If anything had happened to Lucky my world would have fallen apart,” she added.

A Gatwick Express spokeswoman said: “We are so pleased to hear that Lucky lived up to his name and that he and Emma are both well.”

• If you were the soldier or guard who rescued Lucky, please email sophia.sleigh@standard.co.uk