Two giraffes made a bid for freedom from the back of a poorly secured truck as it slowed in highway traffic after leaving Bangkok’s main airport on Tuesday.

The animals had been imported from an unnamed African country and destined for Safari World, a popular attraction outside Bangkok which describes itself as “an open zoo”.

Rescuers caught one of the creatures after stunning it with a tranquilizer gun, but the other escaped into scrubland — cheered on by hundreds of thousands of people on social media.