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Which way to the Reeperbahn? Photo: DPA

Wild boars run amok through Hamburg

Published: 20 Mar 10 11:00 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100320-26005.html

A herd of wild boars ran loose through a Hamburg neighbourhood on Friday evening, invading a metro station and an office building as police chased the rampaging pack of pigs.

One of the approximately dozen boars gained access to the office of a consulting company after breaking through a closed window, according to a police spokesperson.

After staff members evacuated the building, police tried and failed to contain the wayward swine before shooting him. The animal reportedly caused at least €15,000 in damage.

Seven other pigs paid a visit to a U-Bahn metro station in the Volksdorf area. One animal was hit by a train, though the cars remained on the tracks. That animal was shot, and the track’s power lines were switched off for more than an hour while six other boars roamed the station.

A similar incident occurred in January in Hamburg’s Ohlstedt district, when another loose animal derailed a metro train, according to a report published Saturday in the daily Bild.

On Friday, three other wild boars drowned after falling through the ice on a lake in Volksdorf, despite the Hamburg fire department’s rescue efforts. The dead animals were later retrieved from the water.

“Wild boars have proliferated on the outskirts of the city,” the fire department's wildlife expert Olaf Niess told Bild. “We’ll be seeing the animals in Hamburg more often now.”

DPA/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

18:34 March 20, 2010 by mixxim
Pigs chasing boars????
19:55 March 20, 2010 by worldcomingtoanend
"...Seven other pigs paid a visit to a U-Bahn metro station in the Volksdorf area..."

well that is hilarious and funny.....
04:36 March 21, 2010 by wenddiver
YAY Pigs!!!! Go Boar, Go!It is wonderful when Animals remind us humans that we don't own the planet!!!

I fully support the right of the pigs to wander around. Hopefully this will become so common that tourists will come to see them.

A Germany without Animals is a dead and colorless Germany. Thank God for animals!
00:36 March 23, 2010 by Prufrock2010
It's the wild BOORS in Germany who concern me. The pigs are cool.
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