NOORDWIJKERHOUT, Netherlands, Aug. 19 (UPI) — An escaped circus elephant was caught on camera taking a leisurely stroll through a Dutch flea market while stunned shoppers and vendors looked on and snapped photos.
Wouter Louwerens, who posted his footage to YouTube, said he was attending the flea market in Noordwijkerhout with his girlfriend Sunday when an elephant wandered into the area and started walking up and down the aisles of the market.
“It was beautiful to see how she as well as the public stayed quite calm,” Louwerens wrote in the video’s description.
Louwerens said the elephant was only at the market for a short time before her handler arrived and explained the pachyderm, a female named Buba, had wandered away from Circus Freiwald, which was stopped nearby.
“[When her handler arrived] he called Buba, and the elephant turned around and went like a tame lamb with him,” witness Alice de Groot told news website AD.nl.
Circus Freiwald spokesman Gerard Guiking said the circus does not keep the 40-year-old elephant contained by a fence.
“She’s never fixed and bears no collar. We cannot stop her,” he said. “She loves children and super sweet. She really is like a dog who goes sometimes to walk.”
