A BULL'S wild bid to evade the knackers' yard came to a sad end when it was shot by a police marksman in a Blackpool garden.

The black bull broke out of the Blackpool Abattoir in Coopers Way on Monday afternoon (April 28) and ran into Devonshire Road, sending cars and pedestrians scattering, before leaping into the garden of an elderly couple. Police cordoned off a stretch of the road and called in the firearms team.

Householder Douglas Holmes said: "We were sitting in the lounge when we saw a group of about 20 people, who turned out to be from the abattoir, congregating outside. They told us to keep inside as there was a bull in the back garden. We looked and we were quite amazed. It was just standing there, pawing the grass.

"It destroyed some of our plants and then it demolished a three-foot wall, jumping over into next door's garden. It was about an hour-and-a-half before the police decided they had to shoot it."

His wife Millicent said: "It was rather a frightening experience and very disturbing when they shot it. We did feel sorry for the poor thing."

Photographer David Nelson, who witnessed the incident, said: "The police had no choice but to kill it. It was frightened, it was a dangerous. It could have got out again and caused a serious accident."

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