A runaway emu has chased a group of children down a New Zealand street in an incident described as 'straight out of the Road Runner cartoon'.
The bird escaped from a farm in the Marlborough Sounds at the north of the South Island, running down the street at up to 30km/h, the Marlborough Express reported.
"I felt like I was watching the Road Runner cartoon," Constable Jeff Woolf said.
"Because my surname is Woolf, I felt like Wile E Coyote." Constable Woolf said he was called after reports from a tourist of a distressed emu running along the road at Ocean Bay.
By the time the officer arrived, the bird had run about seven kilometres, chasing a group of children along the way, he said.
A group of locals herded the bird into a paddock and were going to call its owner.
"In 14 years on the job it's the most unusual call I've ever had," Constable Woolf said.
