Police chase wild boar living high on the hog in Berlin mall
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The wild boar eventually ran into the woods which surround the German capital, Berlin.
PHOTO: X/@POLIZEIBERLIN
- A wild boar entered a Berlin shopping mall's home decor shop, causing staff to flee and prompting a police response on March 13.
- Authorities, including zoo staff, considered sedation but opted to guide the boar out using wooden pallets towards a nearby forest.
- This incident isn't isolated; in 2023, a boar caused panic in Berlin after being confused with a lioness, highlighting boars in urban areas.
AI generated
BERLIN - A wild boar wandered into a Berlin shopping mall’s home decor shop on March 13, sparking a police response that drew in officers and veterinarians equipped with an anaesthetic gun, wooden shields and even a blowgun but ended peacefully.
Police said they were alerted to the porcine intruder around 9am (4pm in Singapore) when it slipped through sliding glass doors into the mall and started rummaging through the aisles, as staff quickly vacated the shop.
Berlin’s Tierpark zoo told AFP it deployed a team to the scene in the southeastern Koepenick district but quickly assessed “that sedating the animal was not possible due to the layout of the premises”.
Police said officers and the zoo team eventually decided it was best to drive the boar out by “constructing a path using wooden pallets”, adding that “the wild boar then returned to the forest, which we assume it came from”.
It was not the first time a wild boar has roamed built-up areas of the German capital, which is surrounded by woods.
In mid-2023, a wild boar prowling the streets of southwestern Berlin sparked panic after it was briefly mistaken for a lioness. AFP
