A daycare worker and two preschoolers are shaken but mostly unharmed after a run-in with Moses, an ovine fugitive on the lam from a hobby farm in Nanaimo, B.C.

Nanaimo RCMP say they received a call around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday that the three had been attacked by the sheep, a two-year old male who had escaped from his enclosure at a nearby hobby farm in the South Wellington area.

Const. Gary O'Brien said it's not clear why the sheep attacked.

"As the daycare operator was walking by with the two small children, a boy and girl, for unknown reasons, the sheep attacked them, rammed them," O'Brien said.

"They were obviously terrified."

O'Brien said the attack was followed by a "standoff" between Moses and the daycare operator until passersby — and eventually the police — arrived on the scene.

Moses' owner secured the sheep and returned him to his pen, patching the hole in the fence through which Moses appeared to have escaped.

O'Brien said the daycare operator and the two children were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure only.

He said Moses' owner is not facing any charges for the incident.

"It appears that the owner is very responsible, is quite remorseful about the situation and remedied it by correcting the fence," O'Brien said.

"Hopefully that's the last time Moses gets out of his pen."

With files from Sarah Towle.