British ambassador to Austria injured after being chased through the woods by wild boar
Leigh Turner was initially pleased to see a large group of wild boars – soon he was running for his life.
Britain's ambassador to Austria was injured while trying to escape from a "massive" wild boar while taking a country walk near Vienna.
Leigh Turner, who has previously been posted in Turkey and Ukraine, revealed the encounter in a blog post yesterday (15 May).
The diplomat said he was initially "delighted to see a group of maybe 25 wild boar, both adults and infants" close up as walked through Lainzer Tiergarten, a historic wildlife preserve.
Thirty minutes later he stumbled across another similarly large group in the woodland.
However, this time he did not stop to marvel at the animals because two of the large adults were looking directly at him.
Turner decided to walk away from the group but no sooner had he turned than he heard a "thundering sound" behind him; one of the adults was chasing him down "like a galloping horse".
"Not having prior experience of boar attacks, I ran, seeking refuge," he wrote.
"A pile of tree-trunks looked easier for me to climb than for the boar; I attempted to scale it and slipped on the wet wood, scratching and bruising myself in multiple locations as I scrambled to a place of safety," he added.
Thankfully for Turner, the boar appeared content to see him clambering away hurt and gave up the chase, returning to the group.
"By the time I turned round, the boar (no doubt thinking "that's got rid of that swine") had trotted back to join the rest of the group, which was melting back into the forest," he said.
"All my minor injuries were self-inflicted: the boar never made contact. A visit to the doctor the next morning revealed no broken bones: but she put my hand in a pity-inducing splint to stabilise it while the bruising went down."
Wild boar attacks on humans are uncommon but not unheard of. The website britishwildboar.org.uk states: "A male boar attacks by running at you with his head which he then lifts up potentially slashing your legs with his sharp tusks.He then runs off.
"Fatalities rarely occur and are usually a result of blood loss if an artery is cut."
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