AN investigation has been launched after a hedgehog was reportedly set on fire and killed.

Police say the incident of 'unnecessary suffering to an animal' happened in the Lichen Grove area in Carlisle, where a hedgehog appears to have been wrapped in paper and set alight, resulting in its death.

Police say it happened during the evening of Monday, July 25.

Officers say they will be notifying the RSPCA.

Anyone with information relating to this incident can report online at cumbria.police.uk/report-it, quoting incident number 114. 

You can also phone on 101.

Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Hedgehogs are a species in critical decline in the UK.

A report released earlier this year by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) revealed that Britain’s hedgehog populations have continued to decline in rural areas by between 30 per cent and 75 per cent nationally since 2000.

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