3-Foot Giant Tortoise Saved From Train Tracks Thanks to Determined Woman Who Spotted the Escapee

Train services bound for Cambridge, England, were halted to rescue a giant tortoise that had strayed onto the tracks.

Clyde the tortoise was spotted walking the rail line, but the report was initially not taken seriously by railway workers.

After a passenger spotted the animal on a track northeast of Thetford, in Norfolk, she immediately raised the alarm.

Diane Akers posted a photo on Twitter to notify the Greater Anglia train operators, but she wasn’t sure the message got through.

“When we got to Norwich station I told staff in the office there, and the man looked at me as if I was mad,” Akers told BBC.

But then a police officer came along and said he’d seen her tweet.

The 2.5ft lumbering giant escaped his home at the Swallow Aquatics in East Harling, Norfolk, breaking through a wall in his pen.

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“Giant tortoises can move quite quickly and he landed up about half a mile from home,” one of the caretakers told the Metro.uk newspaper.

Clyde has lived at the center for several years after his family could no longer care for their pet.

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The August 1st incident caused four rail lines to be affected—with two trains being terminated early and another starting 20 minutes behind schedule.

The 140-pound animal was checked out by vets, but was only superficially affected when a 4-5 inch piece of its shell broke off. They said it should grow back over time, but all its organs are fine.

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