This lucky tortoise would have beaten the hare after making a 300-mile journey on the back of a lorry.

Tina, as the tortoise has been named, was discovered at Palm Paper, in King's Lynn, just five minutes before she would have been pulped along with 20 tonnes of newspapers.

Shovel loader driver Joe Cooper, 47, spotted the reptile, which had travelled from Devon, and has adopted her until her owner can be found.

He said: 'We were half way through the load when I noticed this little tortoise looking around not knowing what was happening to her.

'It was bizarre, at first I thought it was a shoe or something. You don't expect to see a tortoise, it was definitely one of the strangest things that has happened here.

'She is a very lucky little tortoise, five minutes later and she would have been pulped.'

Mr Cooper, of Thurlin Road, King's Lynn, has had to give himself a Google crash course in tortoise care but has started to become attached to Tina.

'I am becoming quite fond of her,' he said. 'I want to find the owner because I would like her to be in an environment she knows but if I can't I will keep her for my grandson.'