Zebra escapes zoo in Seoul, South Korea, spends hours galloping through city’s busy streets

Seoul — A zebra escaped from a zoo in South Korea’s capital and galloped around Seoul’s busy streets and residential areas for several hours Thursday before being captured. The two-year-old zebra escaped after damaging a wooden deck in its enclosure at Seoul Children’s Grand Park just before 3 p.m. local time, authorities said.

Surprised residents posted pictures and videos of the animal on social media, with some joking that “it must be global warming, now it’s warm enough for zebras to run around.”

Zoo staff, along with personnel from the local fire department and police worked together to capture the zebra after about three and a half hours. A fence was installed around an area in the residential neighborhood and the animal was sedated for transport back to the zoo.

Early this year, the zoo said in an Instagram post that one of its zebras had become agitated and unruly after its parents died. The animal, named Saero, was said to be refusing to go back into its barn and fighting with a neighboring kangaroo.

It wasn’t immediately confirmed whether Saero was the zebra that escaped for the jaunt around Seoul on Thursday, but an official at the animal park told CBS News the escapee was born at the facility in 2021.

The zoo representative said the park would do its best to prevent future escapes by thoroughly investigating the incident, and that veterinarians and zookeepers would take measures to ensure the zebra’s health going forward.

Neither the animal nor any of the people involved in Thursday’s escape were reported injured, and there was no property damage, the zoo official told CBS News.