Zebra on the loose “outsmarts” zoo workers in Seoul

A male zebra broke loose in the South Korean capital on Thursday, trotting through busy streets and alleyways for hours before being tranquilized and returned to a zoo.

Videos on social media showed 3-year-old Sero galloping through Seoul’s Gwangjin district amid heavy traffic, walking down narrow alleys in residential neighborhoods and passing crosswalks as she ran across the city.

Firefighters dispatched to the scene later led the mammal into an alley, where it was tranquilized and taken back to Children’s Grand Park, its home in eastern Seoul.

According to the Gwangjin-gu Fire Department, officers received the first report of a free-roaming zebra at 3:43 pm.

As a team of firefighters headed to the reported location, they spotted the zebra running in the opposite direction, prompting them to give chase, a fire department official told the CNN .

Officials blocked the zebra’s escape route from an alley with security fences, fire trucks and police cars to await the arrival of zoo officials. He said firefighters refrained from using animal anesthetic at the zoo’s request.

A team sent by the zoo arrived about half an hour later to administer seven injections of a muscle relaxant that eventually calmed the zebra down.

Officers loaded Sero into the vehicle bound for the zoo around 6 pm, ending his rare excursion.

Sero’s parents died of the disease last year and since then he has been displaying rebellious behavior, Kim Jae-yun, a zoo employee, told the CNN . He once tried to fight a kangaroo on the side, he said.

In 2005, six elephants also escaped from the same park, attacking restaurants and a school and injuring a woman. The zoo is home to nearly 3,000 animals from 350 species, from lions and giraffes to dolphins and exotic birds, according to the zoo’s own website.