THIS plucky cat uses up one of his nine lives - teetering on the edge of a 30-metre drop over the Manchester Ship Canal.

The moggie was filmed on the Swing Bridge in Stockton Heath casually strolling along the tarmac as it moved to allow a ship to pass through.

Pedestrians and cars aren’t allowed on the bridge when it moves, but it’s thought no-one noticed the little black and white cat had sneaked through the barrier.

Andy Maycock, owner of the Swing Bridge Alerts app, which tells users when the bridges are moving so they can avoid traffic, said: “It’s amazing.

“He looks so relaxed strolling up and down as the bridge moves that it almost looks like he does it a lot.

"He’s not fazed by it at all and looks so tiny on there.

“He patiently waits for the bridge to close, and if you look, he won’t go on the road. Instead he waits so he can get on the pavement then strolls off.

“I’ve been trying to get photographers to use the app so they know when ships are passing through, and one of them went along on Sunday morning and filmed the cat on the bridge.”

The footage was filmed with a drone camera by photographer Chris Digita on London Road in Stockton Heath and had the cat fallen in the canal it’s highly likely it would have drowned.

Chris said: “I took the video for a bit of fun, but also to show that thankfully the cat was ok."

There have been a total of 61 deaths on waterways in the Manchester area since 2008.

Sarah Dornford-May, spokesman for Cheshire Fire Brigade, said the cat had been very fortunate.

She said: “We’ve had to rescue animals from all kinds of situations and thankfully we didn’t need to help in this case.

“This cat has been extremely lucky and we would urge pet owners to be extremely careful with their animals as the situation could have been different.

"If an animal is in danger, we would ask members of the public to contact the emergency services or RSPCA to help."