A dog thief is being hunted by police after a pet puppy was stolen from a cage inside a parked car. The five-month-old Jack Russell terrier, called Max, had been left in the back of a car parked next to the village hall in Dymchurch, Kent.

Police said he was stolen on Friday morning by someone who broke into the Nissan Prairie and ripped open the door of his cage.

Officers said his 14-year-old owner had been left heartbroken.

Max has black fur with a white chest and three of his paws are white.

He was a rescue dog, having been found wandering the streets on Christmas Day and taken into kennels before going to a new home a short while later.