In a break from chasing criminals and traffic offenders, Swiss police were forced to track down and catch a small herd of cows on Monday, that escaped from a farm and ended up inside a school in Uster, Canton Zurich.

Police were called to deal with the animals early in the morning 

Speaking to 20 minuten, a media spokesperson for the Uster city police said that officers were notified about the troublesome bovines at around 7.30am, after a call came in. While three of the animals were relatively easy to trace and catch, the fourth cow was certainly more persistent. 

When emergency services did finally track down the last cow, it had made it into the canteen of a boarding school in Aathal. The cattle, which had escaped from neighbouring Seegräben, were then returned to their pasture with the help of the police and the farmer who owns the cows.

Cows in Switzerland

Cows are a key feature of the Swiss landscape, with more than 1,59 million of them living across Switzerland - that’s one for every fifth Swiss resident! The Swiss cantons home to the most cows are Bern, Lucerne and St Gallen. 

Occasionally, the animals can cause quite a stir, especially when injured cows need to be airlifted down from the Swiss mountains in a dramatic fashion, or when wolf attacks lead to cattle being killed. Most of the time however, the animals exist peacefully as part of the idyllic Swiss countryside and provide the milk required to manufacture delicious Swiss cheeses!