Published: 14:30, October 8, 2024
Police chase koala through Sydney train station
By Reuters

This picture taken on April 6, 2024 shows a native Australian koala being held by a keeper during a show for tourists at Hartley's Crocodile Adventure Park located north of the Queensland city of Cairns. (PHOTO / AFP)

SYDNEY - A wayward koala led police on a low-speed, early morning chase through a Sydney train station, video released on Tuesday showed, surprising commuters in the city.

Video provided by Transport for New South Wales showed the koala ambling through Casula station on Friday, around 34 km (21 miles) south-west of the city's central business district.

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The video showed the koala checking out an elevator before opting to descend a stairway.

Trains in the area were ordered to slow as the koala - a normally reclusive species and one of Australia's best-loved animals - came dangerously close to the platform edge.

The marsupial eventually hopped the station fence after police officers were dispatched to chase it away from the tracks.

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"All passengers, great and small, are reminded to stay behind the yellow line," Transport for New South Wales said in a statement.

Koala are listed as vulnerable to extinction in the state.