Escaped circus zebra caught after police chase - PHOTO

The 12-year-old animal, named Lima, was exercising outside an arena in  downtown Atlanta before an evening show when something spooked him, said a spokeswoman for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The zebra broke away from his trainers and bumped up against a fence, then wriggled through an opening.

'We're not sure what it was that startled him, but we're looking into that,' said the spokewoman, Crystal Drake.

Eyewitness Daniel Nance told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'All of a sudden a freaking zebra comes running down the street like a car'

'Five or six police cars were in hot pursuit. And a bunch of officers on foot. But then I got scared, thinking ... what else is loose?'

Lima led his trainers and police on a 40-minute chase through downtown to the interstate highway that cuts through the center of the city, covering well over a mile on the way.

Police cruisers blocked off all southbound lanes on an interstate and herded the zebra onto an entrance ramp, where his trainer was on hand to capture and soothe him, Drake said.

'He obviously was excited, but he was in good shape,' Drake said. 'His handler calmed him down.'


/Metro.co.uk/

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