An British pub worker thought his bar had been ransacked by criminals when he arrived to a huge mess.

Turns out, the culprit was just a drunk squirrel.

Sam Boulter, branch secretary of the Honeybourne Railway Club in Gloucestershire, discovered £300 damage to the bar when he arrived in the evening to open up, including a flooded floor and trashed shelves.

• Tomic arrested after wild party
• Scientists create seaweed that tastes like bacon

As Mr Boulter surveyed the damage the culprit slowly and sluggishly revealed itself as the squirrel.

“When I opened the door it was absolutely ransacked”, Mr Boulter told Worcester News.

“At first I thought we’d been burgled but I realised it was all still locked up and that’s when we saw the squirrel.

“I’d never seen anything like it before – he had ran around the shelves and across the bar.

“There were bottles scattered around, money scattered around and he had obviously run across the bar’s pumps and managed to turn on the Caffrey’s and also managed to ruin some barrels too.

“He must have flung himself on the handle.”

Two customers and Mr Boulter took an hour to capture the rodent and then return it to its natural habitat. They then endured a further hour of cleaning to get the bar back in order.

The publican said a neighbouring row of trees is to blame for harbouring the diminutive culprit.