Sea lion stopped by police after waddling through traffic in Germany

Charly escaped from his enclosure at a zoo in Coburg, southern Germany. Photo / AP

A sea lion was pulled over by police after rampaging down a German road, bringing traffic to a standstill in the town.

Charly had just escaped from a nearby zoo, and was pictured waddling through traffic in Coburg on Monday.

Locals called the police after being stunned by the surprising sight.

Despite usually being the first at breakfast, he escaped just before his owners brought out the fish meal.

He moved through the traffic until he was pictured lying next to a police car, tired from his escape attempt.

Charly was then captured by his keeper, with help from the police, and taken back to his enclosure.

This isn't the first time a sea lion has ventured into human territory this year.

In February, a sea lionbroke into a restaurant in San Diego and proceeded to take a nap.

Bernard Guillas, executive chef at the The Marine Room restaurant, took a few pictures of the animal and posted them to Facebook, joking: "He was a little bit early for his high tide breakfast reservation ... as it is this weekend on Sunday and Monday."

Posted by Bernard Guillas on Thursday, 4 February 2016

Restaurant staff called in experts from SeaWorld San Diego, who captured the sea lion in a net and took her back to the theme park where she's was nursed back to health.

Jody Westberg, part of the SeaWorld rescue team, said: "We received a phone call early this morning from the Marine Room restaurant in La Jolla stating that they had an animal in one of their booths. They also sent us pictures and we were surprised to see a really young sea lion pup that had actually spent the night in this booth at the restaurant."