Friday night rescue for confused seal pup spotted outside Norfolk kebab shop

A lost seal seemed up for a night on the town when it was spotted at a kebab shop on Friday night.

Teams from Marine and Wildlife Rescue were called to the scene at 11pm in Hemsby, Norfolk.

Confused locals had sent the group pictures of the pup outside Istanbul Delight kebab shop.

Dan Goldsmith, chairman of the Great Yarmouth-based rescue centre, said: ‘We spoke to a couple of people that were milling around there and thought it was a wind-up, they were like: “No, you won’t find a seal around here mate”‘.

‘After searching the area for some time, we eventually found the seal shuffling along on a path outside an amusement arcade called the Mirage.

‘The pup must have just been looking for some shelter, but got disorientated and kept heading inland.’

Dan confirmed the pup was found in good health and they managed to load it onto a stretcher and carry it back to the beach.

He added that sightings of seals further inland are becoming more common.

‘This was more the unusual end of what we do, but this is becoming more of a common occurrence… we responded to one the day before funnily enough, it was out on a road quite a few miles inland,’ he said.

‘I remember 20 years ago we didn’t get hardly any calls about seals, maybe two a week… I get probably at peak times 15-20 calls for different seals a day at the minute.’

In the early 20th century the population in the UK was as low as 500 but that has now increased to 120,000.

He warned people who spot distressed seals not to approach them but to phone the experts.

‘We do get people that mean really well, that want to help and they’ve done things in the past but have been injured,’ Dan said.

‘Call a rescue organisation like us to assess because we’re used to working with them.

‘They’re very quick and responsive… and they can look very docile and friendly, but they’re not, they are really quite hostile things.’

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