More than 6,000 people have signed a petition calling for increased safety measures around a site at the Sandbach Flashes after a dog was dragged under the water into large concrete pipes and likely drowned.

The petition is calling for additional signage and "adequate" fencing to ensure that an incident like this is never repeated.

Mike Lo Bosco, who launched the petition, told Sandbach Nub News the incident happened to family friends, Kate Kelly and fiance Dean Barton, on Friday.

Kate was walking their dog, Bruce the golden retriever and poodle cross, with her son along a footpath in the popular beauty spot.

Mike described the path they were walking on as having the railway track up an embankment on one side with a body of water on another where they were then met with large pipe infrastructure which acts a flow-through.

He explained: "On the surface the water looks fairly still and calm. Most people don't realise there's pipes underneath the water with very strong currents.

"Bruce had just gone to have a little drink out of the water and he slipped and had gone in. Literally in the blink of an eye he's gone in, but the force underneath has just sucked him straight through into these pipes which are completely submerged."

When news of the incident spread, Mike said local residents came out to search for Bruce in the hopes he got out of the other side of the pipe and swam to the river bank, but there was no sign of him.

"Unfortunately, it just sounds like he's stuck down there because there's that much debris in the pipes. There seems to be only two of the pipes underneath that have really got some flow going through them," Mike said.

Mike, who owns Doggy Daycare Wheelock with his wife Sarah, said that even though he has lived in the area all of his life, they had only ever heard of the pipes and were not aware of the danger.

He said: "When you're faced with them, it's like something out of a Stephen King book. They're the most eerie things you've ever seen. It's horrendous being stood there above where he could have went in."

Mike's petition is directed at Cheshire East Council leader, Cllr Sam Corcoran and calls for additional safety measures to be put in place at the site.

In it, he wrote: "This area urgently needs adequate signage and adequate fencing, currently there is neither signage nor adequate fencing. And only recently a local couple have unnecessarily lost their beautiful innocent dog in this way."

Mike said he also fears for small children as well as animals falling into the water, describing the site as a "death trap".

He added this is not the first time this happened to dogs, but safety measures have not been increased.

Mike has since been told that the area is maintained by Network Rail and contractors have been down to the site over the weekend, but it is unclear what work they were carrying out.

Sandbach Nub News has contacted Network Rail and the council for comment.

To view the petition, click here.