Crocodile falls from the sky
2007-08-08 08:12
Moscow - Residents in the Russian nuclear research town of Sarov got a jaw-dropping surprise on Tuesday when a crocodile fell from the twelfth-storey apartment of its owner, the emergency situations ministry said.
The one-metre crocodile landed on a pavement after leaning too far out of the window of the apartment where it had lived for the last 15 years, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted an official with the local branch of the ministry as saying.
Frightened passers-by called the emergency services and rescuers managed to lasso the stunned animal and take it to a shelter for stray pets.
It was soon returned to its owner, unharmed apart from damage to one of its teeth, the official said.
Located in Nizhny Novgorod province east of Moscow, Sarov was the birthplace of the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapons and today is home to the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre.
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- AFP