A wild boar spread havoc in a peaceful residential area in southern Japan, upending a man in a wheelchair, biting two pensioners and smashing into both a motorbike and a car, police said.
At least three people were injured in Sunday鈥檚 rampage in Sasebo city before the boar, measuring 1.2 meters (3.6 feet), was stopped by a local man wielding a golf club and, eventually, police shooters.
During the wild animal鈥檚 eight-hour reign of terror it charged at a motorbike, attacked a 59-year-old wheelchair-bound man, and bit an 89-year-old woman on her left thumb and arm, Sasebo police official Yasutaka Urago told AFP.
It also 鈥渟mashed into a small car, and before getting caught late in the afternoon, bit a 78-year-old man鈥�, a member of the local hunting club who tried to stop the beast.
The woman and the man in a wheelchair both suffered broken fingers.
A local man then set about the animal with a golf club before police shot it dead.
鈥淚 hit it hard鈥� with an iron club, said the local hero. 鈥淚 came out to help when I saw the animal biting her on her arm,鈥� he told public broadcaster NHK.
Wild boars have increasingly been sighted in Japan鈥檚 mountainous countryside cities, as observers say the over-development of the mountains has deprived them of their habitat.