A search continued on Monday for a runaway bull in southern Massachusetts one day after a herd of eight leaped over a fence at a rodeo and escaped.
“Community members should exercise extreme caution and not approach the bull if found,” Fire Chief Christopher Coleman of North Attleboro, Mass., said in an update on Monday morning, adding that residents should call 911 if they found the bull.
No one was injured in the escape, which happened about 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Firefighters for the city of North Attleboro who were working at a rodeo at the Emerald Square Mall said they had seen eight bulls break loose from their pen, the fire chief said in a previous statement.
The herd managed to “run through the parking lot and jump over a fence surrounding the event’s perimeter,” the chief said.
A video from an onlooker featured on the local NBC station showed the bulls galloping away as people in the crowd yelled and ran for safety by jumping on parked vehicles.
The bulls then fled south toward the woods behind a restaurant and brew house.
One bull was caught immediately after the escape. Firefighters and officers with the Attleboro Police Department and the Massachusetts Environmental Police began searching for the other seven.
Chris Mooney told the NBC station said that he had seen the bulls heading down his street in nearby Attleboro, which is about 40 miles south of Boston.
“As soon as I stepped out and I looked out there I said, ‘Those aren’t horses, those are literally bulls,’ and ‘Oh my God,’” he told the outlet. “Two of them were laying down, and another was budging the fence trying to get out, and the other ones were just sitting there.”
About four hours after the escape, search crew members found six bulls stuck behind a fence at a home in Attleboro.
Workers corralled the six bulls into a trailer “without incident,” the fire chief said.
He and a spokeswoman for North Attleboro said that rodeo workers were searching for the missing bull on Monday and that city workers were not involved.
The rodeo, a one-day event at the mall, is being investigated for the episode, Chief Coleman said. It was not clear what organization ran the rodeo but The Boston Globe identified the group as Rancho El Milagro, which did not immediately respond to inquiries on Monday.
The mall also did not immediately respond to inquiries on Monday.