A STARTLED bullock trampled a 72-year-old lady and a skipper of a boat as it rampaged through an island town.
Police in Lerwick on Shetland, some in cars, spent several hours in pursuit of the one tonne creature as it caused chaos.
Mary Thomason, 72, was out on an evening stroll when she was struck down – a terrifying moment that was caught on film.
Meanwhile 42-year-old Aaron Anderson, a local skipper, was also trampled as he attempted to bring the animal under control.
The bullock was eventually cornered into a garden and left with a older cow, brought in to keep him calm.
But that was after it had spent hours running through the streets, even at one point chasing a jogger.
Mary Thomason was attacked on her evening stroll.
The 72-year-old said: “I’d been been for a walk and was coming round the football pitch and all of a sudden I saw this great animal coming towards me.
“It was terribly frightening. I couldn’t believe it. I looked ahead and this bull was just in front of me.
“He just came right at me as if I was in the way. I was knocked out for a second.”
She continued: “The boys came to help me and the bull went along the path.
“He couldn’t get out the other end. He came back up again – we would have gone for us again.
“The boys had to lift me and get me behind the fence. There was a gate that they closed. I don’t know what happened after that.”
She added: “I’m lucky not to have been killed.”
Mrs Thomason said she was allowed to go home from the hospital last night (Tuesday) and despite her ordeal doesn’t have any broken bones.
“It was my ribs and chest,” she said. “I was home last night, they let me go.”
She added: “I feel a bit shaken up and upset about the whole thing.”
Her son Angus Thomason said: “It was a frightening experience for her. She is really badly shaken up and bruised.”
He continued: “Thankfully there was a paramedic there. People thought she was dead when they got to her.”
Aaron Anderson, a 48-year-old skipper from Lerwick, was also taken to hospital after being trampled.
He said: “I was trying to get it back under control. It didn’t want to go into the back of the trailer.
“It was my father and uncle’s bullock. I just happened to be in the area.”
He continued: “The bullock just ran at me and hit in the chest and trampled over the top of me.”
He was taken to hospital but was allowed to go home that night.
Talking about his injuries Mr Anderson said: “It could be cracked ribs, but it’s not to bad. It’s very sore, there is bruising to my chest and legs.”
Student Holly King, 17, was charged by the bull while she was out jogging near Tesco and left “shaken”
She said: “I was just jogging along and I stopped and looked up and thought is that a cow walking along the road.
“It just went for me. I think I froze. I must have jumped over the wall.
Hugh Sim, who was driving though Lerwick at the time, said: “I was on my way home from a music lesson and the next thing I know they is a police car and the guy waving his hand out the window.
“Next thing I know this bull was walking past.”
Explaining how the bullock escaped 66-year-old farmer Maurice Anderson, said: “There was a loud bang that spooked the four cattle at the end of the field.”
He said it managed to jump four fences and walls and became separated from the others and estimated it traveled about a mile and a half in total.
“We got an older cow, a more placid one, and left it for an hour or so to settle down. He’s fine today.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Officers saw the cow leaping over a wall at Tesco, it had already escaped at that time.”
Asked what the bullock is called, Island vet Jim Tait, who was on the scene said: “It’s probably been called lots of things.”
