Pig Pandemonium

It's already bad enough to be driven to an abattoir by a lorry-driver who loves bacon sandwiches, but a herd of pigs had to endure a triple indignity when the vehicle carrying them crashed twice on an Austrian motorway.

192 pigs emerged blinking into the pre-dawn gloom on Tuesday morning when their driver swerved to avoid a vehicle on the A8 motorway. Several pigs were injured and a family had to seek medical aid after their car hit a stray hog. A major rescue initiative was then carried out, and it was several hours before the pigs - many of whom had scarpered - were eventually brought back together.

To make matters worse, the lorry driver, who appeared to get off to a good start second time round, repeated the scenario some hours later when his vehicle lurched into a tunnel wall in Southern Austria. Once again the pigs skedaddled.

At least twenty pigs did not survive the double ordeal.

All in all it has not been a good year for lorry-drivers with animals on board. Back in April, the A1 motorway was officially closed when a lorry carrying thousands of rabbits crashed near the Hungarian border.