Cow on the loose prompts police chase in Sheffield

The shaggy Highland cow took to the roads in the Manor Top area and prompted a storm of comments on socia media as it wandered down the carriageway.

After several hours apparently at large the distinctive animal was captured by officers when it “decided to get in its owners’s trailer”, police said.

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said no harm came to the animal, though it was “a bit distressed”.

Earlier in the day, South Yorkshire Police officers tweeted their efforts to catch the cow, saying it was being followed “for public safety”.

A tweet from the Manor Castle Safer Neighbourhoods Team read: “Cow containment is still ongoing. Us urban officers aren’t equipped for this type of thing!”

Witnesses said three police cars were following the animal, with large distinctive horns, said to be “one of a number that got loose over the weekend from a field in Woodhouse” over the weekend.

On the Sheffield Forum website, one resident wrote this afternoon: “It just went down Ridgeway Road from Manor Top towards Gleadless Townend and the police cars herded it right up Hollinsend Road...apparently they’re trying to catch it on Gleadless Road now. Big queue of traffic behind it! Does anyone know where it’s from?”

Another message left on the website said the cow “took rest on my front garden for a while earlier”.

It said: “I looked out of the window and saw all of the police first, then saw a cow wandering up my drive. I thought I was tripping! It wandered around the back of my car and as I opened the front door it actually tried to get in the house.

“The coppers blocked the bottom of my drive with a car and there was a stand off for a while as it stood chewing my plants. They brought a van up and it bolted off down the road (Gleadless Drive).

“Apparently it knocked an elderly lady over shortly after as she was trying to stop it.”

The Manor Castle team later tweeted: “The cow saga has come to a happy ending and the beast has been reunited with its owner.

“Our firearms team were deployed for public safety but luckily (for the cow) it decided to get in its owner’s trailer.”