FRANCE:POLICE, FIREFIGHTERS and cattle herders on horseback were deployed in the Camargue in southern France yesterday to hunt more than 20 bulls which were apparently released from their enclosure by unknown saboteurs.
Tourists and local people were urged to be on guard after an English cyclist in the region was injured and sunflower fields were left flattened by the rampaging herd.
Jacques Simonnet, a local government official in Arles, said everything about the incident pointed towards sabotage. "The fencing was ripped up and the neighbours heard gunshots fired in the night . . . So the investigation is working to the theory that it was an act of malice," he told La Provence newspaper.
Forty-eight bulls escaped on Saturday from their farm near the village of Saint Rémy de Provence, a popular spot for holidaymakers hoping to see some of the marshland's fabled wildlife.
Twenty-three of the cattle were rounded up on Sunday, while one was killed after authorities gave local people permission to shoot any bulls that wandered near residential areas.
Officials warned that while the cattle had not been reared for fighting and did not tend to be aggressive, they weighed about 200 kg and could charge at people if frightened.
Camargue cattle are hardy beasts which live in the semi-wild alongside the region's famed wild horses. In 2004, about 50 of the bulls were apparently set loose from a different herd in Saint Rémy de Provence. It took five weeks of searching to get them back. - (Guardian service)