Seoul, South Korea (CNN) A male zebra broke free in the South Korean capital on Thursday and trotted through busy streets and back alleys for hours before being calmed and returned to a zoo.
Videos on social media showed 3-year-old Sero galloping amidst heavy traffic through Seoul’s Gwangjin district, ambling down narrow residential streets and passing crosswalks while scurrying through the city.
Firefighters dispatched to the scene later herded the mammal into an alley where it was sedated and returned to Children’s Grand Park, its home in east Seoul.
According to the Gwangjin-gu Fire Station, officials received the first report of a zebra freely roaming the district at 3:43 p.m.
When a team of firefighters drove to the reported location, they spotted the zebra running in the opposite direction and urged them to give chase, a station official told CNN.
Officials blocked his escape route from a side alley with security fences, fire engines and police cars to await zoo officials’ arrival.
He said firefighters had refrained from using narcotics on animals at the zoo’s request.
A team dispatched from the zoo arrived about half an hour later to give seven injections of a muscle relaxant that eventually calmed the zebra.
Officials loaded Sero into the vehicle heading to the zoo around 6:00 p.m., ending his rare outing.
Both of Sero’s parents died of an illness last year, and he’s exhibited rebellious behavior ever since, Kim Jae-yun, a zoo official, told CNN. He once tried to argue with a kangaroo next door, he said.
In 2005, six elephants also fled the same park, charging into restaurants and a school, leaving an injured woman in her wake.
The zoo is home to nearly 3,000 animals from 350 species, ranging from lions and giraffes to dolphins and exotic birds, according to its website.