Iggy the iguana spent ten hours on the run after slipping out through a cat flap.

The runaway reptile made a break for freedom as owner Lucy Faulkner's parents dropped her at school.

The eight-year-old lizard's lust for adventure caused heartache at the family home in High Bevendean, Brighton, which he shares with four dogs, two ferrets, a cat and some fish.

Lucy's parents frantically searched the garden and nearby streets for any trace of Iggy.

Lucy, 16, said: "The last person to leave the house must have left the door to the kitchen open.

"Iggy normally climbs out of his enclosure to sunbathe on the window sill in the front room. We think he must have spotted the open door and then gone out through the cat flap.

"My parents discovered he was missing when they came back from dropping me off at school. They looked everywhere for him."

The worried family eventually contacted police for help, fearing the creature would not survive a night on the streets of Brighton.

But just as night was falling, Iggy returned, shivering with cold, and made his way upstairs to the bath.

Lucy, a pupil at Varndean School, said: "I went to have one last look around the house and as I was searching for him he was just standing there, staring at me.

"He was freezing cold so we put him straight into the bath to warm up."