Sightings of mystery wallaby on the loose on Norfolk-Suffolk border

A wallaby has been spotted running loose in countryside on the Norfolk and Suffolk border, triggering a police appeal.

The first sighting of the animal, commonly associated with Australia, was on Monday in the village of Ilketshall St Andrew, with footage was showing it emerge from bushes before bounding across farmland.

It was followed a day later by another report of the animal in Wisset, near Halesworth, about seven miles away from the earlier sighting.

A spokesperson for Suffolk Constabulary told The Independent: "If spotted residents [are] asked to call [the] police or alternatively the RSPCA.”

With no local animal sanctuaries yet to come forward to claim the wallaby as missing, it remains unclear whether the wallaby is an escapee, or one of Britain's wild wallabies.

And locals have spoken of their surprise at the sightings.

"He's getting around isn't he?" a worker at local pub The Huntsman and Hounds in Halesworth told The Independent, confirming that customers were aware of the wallaby being spotted. They added: "He's a long way from home."

Wallabies in the UK are not uncommon, with wild colonies twiof red-necked wallabies living in Scotland and also on the Isle of Man, where over 800 are known to live and breed.