Buffalo shot dead on the streets of Shanghai

OK, that's a little misleading. This happened in Jinshan District, which might as well be Anhui Province. But still, a buffalo was shot and killed along an expressway in the outskirts of Shanghai on Thursday. They couldn't get the obviously lost (and huge ... 500 kg) animal off the road, and then, reportedly, the buffalo started to charge police cars. They ended up calling in a sharpshooter. It's a really sad story:

A scared and lost buffalo was shot after it charged police vehicles, Xinmin Evening News reported today. The buffalo caused an expressway closure for almost 2 hours and blocked more than 100 cars. No one was injured.

Except, of course, for the buffalo. Evidently the red lights and sirens from the police cars -- surprise, surprise -- are what caused it to charge the first time. It wasn't reported whether police eventually thought to turn the lights and sirens off.

To deal with the situation, police shot the buffalo with their handguns, but the bullets only enraged the buffalo further. The buffalo continued attacking and ran in the direction of Songjiang. They called up a sharp-shooter who then finally shot and killed the buffalo. Authorities then removed the carcass from the expressway.

Photo from Shanghai Diaries.