POLICE were called to a busy road to help rescue a roaming swan which was running in and out of traffic.

Officers in Colchester had to use their wildlife expertise to detain and relocate the swan, which has now been safely returned to water.

It had been spotted wandering down Ipswich Road on Friday by several members of the public and had even had the cheek to hold up traffic.

Police were able to make light of the incident on Facebook by making references to a scene in the film Hot Fuzz, where a police officer is called in to track down an escaped swan.

In the post, officers said: "Obviously this can be quite dangerous for not only the swan but other road users.

"One of Colchester’s community policing team units was deployed to the scene and using some top notch observation skills to immediately identify the suspect as 'just one swan actually'.

"Swans are known to be quite flighty and discretion being the better part of Valour they decided to call for some back up from PCSO March PCSO Oscroft-Curtis who both promptly arrived to assist.

"Using 'realistic' swan calls they managed to confuse the swan sufficiently in order for PSCO March detain it and return it to the river."