A wandering wallaby is on the loose in Berlin, police say

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BERLIN (AP) — A kangaroo — well, a wallaby to be precise — is on the loose in Berlin. City police say any passersby who spot it should keep their distance, but an eye on it too.

Chief Inspector Martin Halweg told The Associated Press in an email on Monday that Berlin police are no longer tailing the meandering marsupial because it’s not believed to pose a threat to public safety — for now.

Passersby tipped off police late Sunday morning about the animal on the run in the western Spandau area of Berlin. Officers were dispatched to try to catch the wallaby, which is a smaller relative of a kangaroo, but it darted into a forest, and the trail was lost.

Police don’t have special equipment for capturing kangaroos, only blankets or snares used to catch free-roaming dogs, Halweg said.

He said a video posted on Facebook that shows a wallaby hopping down a dark street, then pausing to lick its paws as a woman’s voice in the background expressed surprise, appeared to have been taken around the time the animal was considered to be missing.

German media reported that the wallaby, about 90 centimeters (about 3 feet) in height, belonged to a private owner, and the circumstances of its escape were not immediately clear.

“Berlin police recommend that if you see the animal, notify police or the Berlin Animal Catcher,” Halweg wrote. “They also advise keeping your distance and maintaining visual contact with the animal so that emergency personnel can approach it.”

The city’s police don’t keep records on lost animals, Halweg said, but he’s never run across a kangaroo hunt before in his more than 30 years of service: “Such cases are indeed very rare.”