Technology worker streams four hours of pursuit on Periscope as police armed with riot shields fail to drive boar into net or coax it out with food

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Police in Hong Kong have spent more than three hours attempting to catch a wild boar careering around the financial district, in the second such incident in a week.

It is not known whether the boar that dodged through police lines to escape into central Hong Kong on Friday is the same animal that taunted police for two hours on Wednesday, after it was spotted wandering around the front of the luxury Conrad international hotel.

But the hotel is next to Hong Kong park, where police were attempting to catch the boar on Friday. Hong Kong tech worker @Penguinsix live-streamed almost four hours of the efforts to catch the animal on Periscope and hummed the Mission Impossible theme during suspenseful moments.

PenguinSix (@PenguinSix) LIVE on #Periscope: Wild boar breaks through police lines in Hong Kong into the park. https://t.co/p9SFaOvmxd

“It’s broken through police containment lines and it’s moved into another area of the park where they don’t want him to be, and it’s moving quickly, too,” he said around the three-hour mark.

Police, armed with riot shields, attempted to drive the boar into a net, which was strung between four more police officers. They also attempted, unsuccessfully, to coax it out with food.

“The beaters are trying to push it into this net,” the tech worker said, panning to show the size of the net. “Not exactly the best place to be, behind this net. I’m going to stand here.”

Hong Kong residents followed the hunt with interest.

Samson Ellis (@samsonellis) #BREAKING Wild pig hunt happening in Central, Hong Kong right now. Drop everything.

According to the Periscope commentary, police were initially amused by the boar and tried to take selfies with it but amusement faded as the hours and heavy rain wore on. Animal control workers arrived several hours in.

A small crowd huddled under umbrellas to watch. The boar ignored the spectators and continued to shuffle around the dense vegetation.

The boar was finally captured after police used a tranquiliser gun to subdue it. “He’s got a dart in his butt,” @Penguinsix reported.



On Wednesday the boar escaped by jumping into a flowerbed. Photographs published on the website of the Oriental Daily News show the animal making an impressive leap into the concrete garden bed, which was twice its own height.

“Shortly after 10am, it eluded capture, ran across [Justice Drive] and fled towards a hillside before it disappeared,” a police spokesman said, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

Wild boars live in the rainforests that surround the developed areas of Hong Kong.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of boars seen in the city was increasing but the number of boars killed by police was decreasing, partly due to the efforts of the Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group, which argues they are cute and friendly.

Ben Westcott (@Ben_Westcott) The beautiful moment when the Hong Kong boar leaps for freedom #prayforboar #boartobewild https://t.co/VleeMC8ZJQ pic.twitter.com/19lFERo1q3

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported, a small female boar walked into a children’s clothing store in the Paradise Mall in the Chai Wan district before it “climbed up into, and then crashed through, the store’s ceiling. It bit a mannequin and was trapped in a changing room before it was tranquillised by authorities”.

The episode recalled previous examples of unexpected animals eluding authorities, such as last year’s epic mayhem involving two llamas in Sun City, Arizona, and the surprise dash of two water buffalo along a busy Sydney street in 2014 after escaping from a film shoot.

