A mystery sheep ran wild through the streets of central Wellington before it was apprehended by police, who took the animal to cells in the back of a patrol car.

Wellington police Senior Sergeant Anita Dixon said police received three or four calls from concerned members of the public who saw the sheep bolting down Ghuznee Street and along Vivian Street at around 11.30pm last night.

A police unit was dispatched find the sheep were about to give up until they found it cornered in the Briscoes carpark on Taranaki Street by a group of people.

"Some members of the public had jumped on it and held it down in the carpark," Dixon said.

With no other clear options, and mindful of the havoc it could cause to late-night revellers and traffic, the officers bundled the sheep into the back of their vehicle and headed back to Wellington Central Station.

"There was nothing else we could do with it. It could have caused mayhem if it got into Courtenay Place.”

As Dixon was talking at the Wellington Central watchhouse last night, the "stressed" sheep was being loaded into a truck to be taken away by Wellington City Council animal control.

Police were at a loss to explain where the sheep had come from. Meatworks Taylor Preston, in Ngaruanga Gorge, was too far away for the sheep to have been making an escape attempt, Dixon said.

"We've got no way of knowing, unless someone phones up and says 'I've got a sheep that jumped out of a trailer'."