A PREMATURE penguin chick has been saved by keepers at London Zoo after its parents accidentally stepped on its egg before it was ready to hatch.

Zoo keepers removed the egg from the enclosure only to realise the penguin chick was still alive inside.

They rushed her to the Zoo’s on-site vet clinic where a team of vets removed tiny pieces of shell from the chick with tweezers until they could gently lift her out and into a makeshift nest.

Weighing just 73g and with a slim chance of surviving, she was carefully transferred into a special incubation room.

Naming her Rainbow, she was given a stuffed penguin toy to keep her company in place of her parents and was hand-fed three times a day with a special ‘milkshake’ blend of fish, vitamins and minerals.

Thanks to the efforts of the keepers, Rainbow is now one-month old and steadily gaining weight. She’ll have to stay in incubation for another 6 weeks or until she is around 3kg.

Rainbow will then move into the zoo’s penguin nursery and learn to swim and socialise before joining the 80 other penguins at the zoo in their 1500 square metre pool – the largest of its kind in Britain.