ARMED police were called to the centre of Otley on Monday to shoot dead a panicking cow that had escaped from the auction mart.

Officers were alerted to the problem at 2.20pm, after a heifer broke free from Wharfedale Farmers Auction Mart, on Leeds Road, and headed towards Burras Lane and the town centre.

Auction mart staff managed to corner the animal until police arrived, and they decided the safest solution would be to kill it.

Market auctioneer and manager Michael Harrison said: "It was a heifer, a Limousin cross about 20 months old, which had got a little bit nervous and escaped from the market.

"Once they get into unfamiliar surroundings they tend to keep running and moving. It wasn't ultimately dangerous because we managed to corner it to stop it being a nuisance to the public.

"The police came in with an armed officer and he shot the beast. We thought it was the safest thing to do rather than risk trying to move it, because it was in the town centre with lots of people around.

"The police had to be involved in an incident like this.

"It was just one of these unfortunate incidents that very, very rarely happen. I've been in Otley for four years and it's the first time I've heard of it here."

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: "We deployed some armed response officers who actually had to deal with it and, unfortunately, kill the animal.

"It looks like this one was charging about and if it looks like there is a potential risk to people in the vicinity then obviously we have to deal with and, as a last resort, officers had to kill it."