Ecology

22:42, 08.08.2007 | Russia

RESIDENTS in the Russian nuclear research town of Sarov got a jaw-dropping surprise today when a crocodile fell from its owner's 12th storey flat.

The one metre caiman crocodile landed on a footpath after leaning too far out of the window of the flat where it had lived for the last 15 years, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted an official with the local branch of the ministry as saying.

Frightened passers-by called the emergency services and rescuers managed to lasso the stunned animal and take it to a shelter for stray pets.

It was soon returned to its owner, unharmed apart from damage to one of its teeth, the official said.

In Nizhny Novgorod province east of Moscow, Sarov was the birthplace of the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapons and today is home to the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre.