Alligator SWIMS over a flooded boundary fence after wild rain battered Australia’s east coast – before the fugitive is caught and plonked back into his enclosure
- Torrential rain sparked widespread flooding from Sydney to the Central Coast
- An alligator at Somersby’s Australian Reptile Park swam over a boundary fence
- Zoo workers had to rescue the beast after it became stuck outside the enclosure
- Footage shows several men lifting the animal up to put it back inside its pen
An alligator has escaped his pen by swimming over a fence at a reptile park as an entire month’s worth of rain was dumped across Sydney in two hours.
Torrents of rain battered NSW on Tuesday causing widespread flooding from the Harbour City through to the Central Coast as roads turned into rivers and cars became stuck underwater.
Waterways across the region quickly swelled, including Leask Creek, which runs through the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, an hour north of Sydney.
An American alligator who lives at the zoo seized the opportunity to make a break for freedom, swimming over the fence enclosing his lagoon.
A sneaky alligator absconded from his enclosure at Australian Reptile Park, on the NSW Central Coast, on Tuesday as water levels breached the top of the boundary fence
But once he made it to the other side, he became trapped by another surrounding fence and had to be rescued by zookeepers, who promptly reunited him with the other 55 alligators.
‘Although there was no danger of him breaching the main boundary fence near visitors, there was still no way he would have been able to get back into the lagoon on his own,’ Head Reptile Keeper Jake Meney told 7News.
Footage of the rescue was shared on the wildlife centre’s Facebook page, where it rapidly racked up more than a 1000 reactions.
The video shows several men attaching a lasso around the reptile’s jaw, before using the rope to pull the beast towards a low-lying section of the boundary fence.
The men then pick the runaway up by its torso and place it back inside its enclosure.
It comes as the Bureau of Meteorology warned heavy rainfall due to high humidity could make the next seven days the wettest week of the year so far for Australia’s east coast.
Wild weather lashed the NSW east coast on Tuesday, causing widespread flooding from Sydney to the Central Coast. Pictured: Wolli Creek
The NSW Central Coast had the heaviest rain by Tuesday afternoon – 142mm at Wyong since 9am, including an extraordinary 35mm downpour in just 15 minutes.
Just 20km to the northwest Whiteman’s Ridge Road copped 80mm in two hours.
In Sydney, the Parramatta River broke its banks while Marrickville in the city’s inner west had 61mm of rain in an hour.
Rising waters sparked commuter chaos, with cars needing to be towed across the city after becoming stuck in flood waters.
Sydney, Hunter, Illawarra, Central Tablelands, Lower Western and Upper Western Forecast Districts, were warned to brace for heavy rain and damaging winds.
The BoM warned the ‘intense rainfall may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding’ and warned people not to cross flooded roads.
NSW is forecast to be wet for a further seven days with little prospect of any sunshine, while south-east Queensland is also forecast to see heavy rain from Wednesday.
NSW residents have been warned the worst of the wet weather is still to come, with downpours forecast for another week
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