Camels get the hump and run away from the circus

"Officers on night patrol answered a call from a concerned resident in the Obergiesing area, who had seen the animals eating plants outside their home," a Munich police spokesman told The Local.

Three cars were sent to the location, while managers at a circus nearby were also woken up with a demand that they come and take their camels back.

"The camels had come from the circus. We don't know how they had got out, but they had wandered a few hundred kilometres up the road and found some plants in front of a house which they were eating," the spokesman said.

"Our officers did their best to make sure the camels did not walk off anywhere else, parking their cars in such positions as to keep the animals in once place until the circus people arrived."

The camels offered no resistance and were calmly taken back to the circus.

"This sort of thing does not happen every day in Munich, but the officers are trained to improvise," the police spokesman said.