Unusual excursion

Koala explored Sydney train station – police operation

(Bild: APA/EPA/TARONGA CONSERVATION SOCIETY AUSTRALIA)

In Australia, a koala has made an unusual trip to a train station - and triggered a police operation: videos from surveillance cameras show the marsupial squeezing through a fence at Casula Station near Sydney in the morning and then wandering dangerously close to the edge of the platform.

It had previously headed for a staircase, but then stopped in front of an elevator. "The koala appears to consider taking the elevator to the platform, but then keeps running when no elevator arrives," the AAP news agency described the scene.

Conductor called police
After crossing a pedestrian bridge, the bear trudged down the stairs on the other side of the tracks, where it first encountered a human commuter who was slightly baffled. But it was the conductor of a passing train who finally reported the rare guest to the authorities.

The video was broadcast by an Australian radio station:

Immediately, all trains were instructed to slow down as they passed through Casula. The police rushed to the scene and accompanied the koala on its way back to the nearby bushland. The officers did not have to intervene, the little excursionist climbed the fence on his own and made his way home, it was said.

There is a large koala population in Sydney's southwest, but it is increasingly threatened by urban development. The number of collisions between the animals and cars has increased as new roads have suddenly been built through their natural habitat, Australian media reported. The state of New South Wales has appointed its own koala commissioner to better protect the iconic animals.