Loose bull on tracks disrupts trains between Newark and New York

A bull found its way onto train tracks at Newark Penn Station. Photo / AP

A loose bull in New Jersey’s largest city found its way onto train tracks, snarling rail traffic for a while on Thursday before it was captured, authorities said.

The ruddy brown bull with long, dark-tipped horns stood on the tracks at Newark Penn Station, prompting a police response and holding up train traffic between New Jersey and New York Penn Station for nearly an hour, New Jersey Transit said.

Police officers eventually cornered the animal in a fenced lot about 4.8km away from the station, Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Fragé said. The bull would be sent to a local animal sanctuary, he said.

A bull found its way onto train tracks at Newark Penn Station. Photo / AP

No injuries were reported, the director said.

Exactly how the bull came to be loose, who owns it and other details about the bovine’s walk around Newark weren’t immediately clear.

It wasn’t the first time a bull has been loose in Newark.

In 2006, it took authorities 10 hours to capture a bull roaming around the city, according to NBC News. Two years before that a steer escaped a slaughterhouse and wandered around Newark before it was captured and sent to a sanctuary, NBC reported.