Swan brings Porthmadog traffic to a standstill
A swan has caused chaos after bringing a town’s traffic to a standstill.
The swan was walking on a road in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, when it held up a bus and a queue of vehicles.
Alison Statham runs a B&B with her husband in the area of North Wales.
She was on her way to Porthmadog from nearby Minffordd when she saw the bird making its way along the road just before lunchtime on Tuesday.
“We saw the traffic slowing down so we stopped and then Phil, my husband, said ‘There’s a swan holding up the traffic,'” she told Sky News.
“We just stopped and then watched this bus slowly coming towards us with the swan sort of walking in front of it.”
The traffic managed to overtake the swan, while giving it plenty of room.
“The car in front of us or a couple of cars in front of us stopped quite a way in front of the swan so that the bus eventually went around it really slowly,” Mrs Statham added.
“But in the meantime, my husband had got out, and the lady in the car behind us got out, and I got out and we were trying to shoo it over the wall but it needs a run…they need to run, flap their wings and then take off.”
The swan later managed to get itself to safety.
“Apparently, there’s a gap in the wall a bit further down going back towards Minffordd so apparently it got through there but we didn’t see that,” she said.
“There was a family of swans I believe in the water to the right-hand side and it kept walking along and poking its head over the wall just to see where they were.”
Mrs Statham added she thought the swan must have been thinking ‘How the hell am I going to get over?’ the wall.