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Motorists were shocked to encounter a 200-kilogram pig in a tunnel section of the Putian-Yongding expressway in Longyan City in east China’s Fujian Province on Tuesday, after it fell off an animal transporter.
Security camera footage showed the enormous pig falling out of the fast moving transporter after its cage had been left unlocked, as it tumbled onto the tarmac in the middle of the tunnel. The driver did not notice that one of his passengers had fallen off, as he continued driving.
Unable to move due to a broken leg, the pig stayed where it fell. Shocked drivers narrowly missed the injured animal, with some swerving to avoid hitting it.
The local traffic police soon arrived on scene and took immediate action, successfully lifting the animal onto a pick-up truck and driving it away. After a 30-minute delay, traffic in the tunnel resumed as normal.
China’s pork industry has boomed over the past few decades. Since the late 1970s, when the government liberalized the agriculture industry, pork consumption has increased nearly seven fold in China. The country now produces and consumes almost 500 million swine a year, half of all the pigs in the world, according to The Economist.