Man's fingertip torn off as wild boar rampage puts German town under siege

Two aggressive wild boars attacked and injured several people in the small German town of Heide on Friday morning, tearing through the town centre in a rampage which lasted for hours. Four people were injured, and one man’s fingertip was torn off, according to police reports. Others suffered leg injuries, as they were hit by the fully-grown animals in the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein.  The boars tore through the streets and ran through the market square, before making their way into a local bank branch, according to police, who issued a warning at around 9am urging people to avoid the town centre and to stay in their houses or in shops. One eyewitness saw a woman lying on the ground, screaming, after her trousers had been torn, according to German radio station NDR 1 Welle Nord. Another said they were "completely bewildered" and that the boars had come "out of nowhere".  After a large-scale operation, during which police and hunters chased the boar with stun rifles, one was killed by huntsman Uwe Ingwersen at 11am - two hours after the animals were first spotted - with a targeted head shot. The second ran away from the centre and police say it is now outside the city area.  Terror in Ditmarschen���� http://pic.twitter.com/mheLOKa5RK— Daggi (@danishkeks) October 20, 2017 Customers in the bank, which was invaded by the boars, were evacuated through open windows using ladders, according to police reports. Several cars were also damaged. Wild boar still roam the forests of Germany and are seen as a menace by much of German society. Marcus Börner, press officer at the Country Hunting Association, told the Schleswig-Holstein newspaper that it is highly stressful for boars, which have spread extensively in the state in recent decades, to be caught between walls and among so many people, causing them to become aggressive.  Earlier this year, a herd of wild boars attacked several people, injuring three, near Berlin's Tegel airport. Local media reported that it took authorities 18 shots to down one 200-kilogram boar, while the rest of the herd escaped.

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