Huge herd of cows break loose and cause havoc in country village

One local resident described the sound as ‘like an earthquake’.

The Pamplona bull run has nothing on North Yorkshire, it seems, after a herd of no less than 45 cows broke loose all at once earlier this week. 

A video shows local resident Leon Box, 16, racing away from the unruly herd as they charged along the road in Ripon on Friday. 

The teenager had popped down the road after hearing the cows had broken free, to then be startled by the sight of them pounding toward him at speed. 

Leon’s mum Jess, 36, said the whole family had witnessed the herd thundering straight past the house at around 8pm, reportedly after the cows had pushed open a kissing gate in a nearby field. 

It comes as this year’s San Fermin bull run festival kicks off in the Spanish city of Pamplona, where the controversial traditional event will run for nine days. 

Dressed in white clothes and red scarves, thousands of people will participate in the festivities, immortalised in Ernest Hemingway’s debut 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, dodging six heavy bulls set loose on the city’s narrow streets. 

Meanwhile back in North Yorkshire, Jess recalled how the sound of the herd passing by the house sounded ‘like an earthquake.’

She said: ‘My eldest had just got to the corner. A few of his friends has said there are some cows loose. They couldn’t see any road just a load of cows.

‘My husband came out with our two youngest. He had heard something and thought it was the kids.’

Jess’s husband Matt, 37, along with their two other children Charlie, nine, and Archie, seven, watched as the herd then trampled into a neighbour’s garden. 

The family say it took another few hours before the cows were finally corralled back into their field, with help of North Yorkshire police. 

Jess said: ‘They made a mess. There is quite a lot of poo. It’s pretty gross.

‘Quite a lot of people have said it’s the funniest thing they’ve seen.’

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