A group of teenagers have spoken of their horror at finding a cat they believe had been strangled and left to die a painful death on a path in March.

The students called the RSPCA, but despite being told that an inspector would come out, 40 minutes later a call operator from the charity rang to say nobody could help.

Kallum Mueller, who watched helplessly as the cat died near The Stars public house on the Avenue, said they pleaded on the phone to the RSPCA for somebody to help but were told there was nothing they could do.

A call to 101 brought the same response.

“It was definitely the victim of animal violence, it’s head was twisted the wrong way and there were no signs of any other injury like being hit by a car.

“The cat was in good condition other than its neck injry. We feel appalled that nobody was able to come and help put the animal out of its misery.”

The trio of 16-year-old Kallum and his sister Sasha Mueller, 14, and her friend Torie Hayden, 14, stayed with the cat from finding it at about 9pm until it died at about 10.30pm.

They then buried it in the cemetery of St Wendreda’s church to save the distress of students going to Neale Wade who would have seen the animal on the walk to school the next day.

The cat is described as an over sized light grey cat speckled with dark grey spots and a white underbelly.

A spokesman for the RSPCA said:” This is a very sad incident and we are really grateful to these caring teenagers who did what they could to help this cat.

“Our national call centre was told this cat had been hit by a car and was gravely ill. The nearest RSPCA inspector was an hour away so we asked if the caller could take the cat to the vets for emergency treatment - unfortunately because of Kallum’s age that was not possible.

“Our call centre staff then rang round a number of vet surgeries and explained the cat needed urgent attention but unfortunately none were able to attend. Sadly the cat died before our inspector was able to get to the scene.

“If anyone has information about how the cat was injured we would urge them to call our appeal line on 0300 1238018.”