A rare albino ostrich is on the loose in the far eastern city of Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky, where residents were cautioned on Monday to avoid its potentially deadly kicks.
The bird escaped a traveling circus that had pitched its tents at a local stadium, circus administrator Vasily Kolos told Interfax.
He blamed the incident on workers who forgot to close the ostrich pen. Two birds escaped, but one — not the albino — was soon found nearby.
Given the ostrich's tremendous top speed — it can run at 70 kilometers per hour — Kolos said the runaway bird could be in any part of the city.
He asked locals to help find the ostrich, but warned against approaching it. "The ostrich is a very stupid and aggressive bird — it's capable of maiming," Kolos said. He did not elaborate, but several ostrich kick-related deaths have been registered in South Africa alone.
The circus break comes on the heels of another incident in July, when a "depressed" ferret escaped a circus in east Siberian city of Chita.
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