Residents of a nursing home in the mountain town of Ål, Buskerud County, had a surprising and frightening visit Wednesday morning from a moose that crashed its way through a window into a patient’s room.
The room’s resident fortunately had left to go eat breakfast, reported Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK), but suddenly a moose was on the loose inside the building. “It happened right during the time when we’re helping people get up and are serving breakfast,” department leader Tone Fossgård Berg told NRK.
“Suddenly we heard a lot of noise, and screams, and see that a moose is running into another room.” Nursing home staff were able to get the resident of that room to safety and managed to shut the door, trapping the large animal inside while emergency calls were made to local police and wildlife authorities. “We were afraid the door wouldn’t hold,” said Berg. “We were really scared.”
All 19 residents of the nursing home wing were evacuated until authorities arrived and decided they had to shoot the moose. No one was injured during the incident, which baffled the authorities. No one could explain why a moose would burst through a window except perhaps that it was looking for food. Staff considered themselves fortunate that the moose ran into a room and not up and down the corridors. “Then it would have been even more dramatic,” said Berg, who faced an unexpected clean-up job after the moose carcass was removed.
(To see photos of the aftermath, go to NRK’s coverage – external link, in Norwegian).
By Views and News staff
