A drunken lumberjack faces losing his licence after crashing a van with two horses in the back in Poland.

Leszek Stepien, 55, was using one of the animals to put his Mercedes back on its wheels when fire fighers came across him.

The Pole is reported to have been drinking vodka, before loading his two horses - a stallion and a mare - into the back of his son's van to take them home.

As he drove near the town of Skwierzyna, east of Poznan, the stallion got loose and tried to mount the mare. But the mare had other ideas and in the confusion, drunken Stepien collided with roadside barriers and tipped the van.

Amazingly, he escaped injury and the horses suffered nothing more serious than shock. The lumberjack then hitched the stallion to the front axle and was trying to right the vehicle when firefighters came across the scene.

Fire chief Michal Kowalewski said: "I've never seen anything like it. Luckily the horses were not injured but the owner is facing charges including animal cruelty and drink driving." One officer revealed that Stepien had drunk enough to put him over twice the legal drink-driving limit.