Tuesday 19th June 2001

An elderly couple in central Finland are in shock after a large elk smashed through a kitchen window and landed on their breakfast table.

The elk, which walked through the three-paned window, was injured by the glass and bloodied the interior of the house before police shot and killed it.

The animal broke through the ground-floor window of Anja and Matti Piippo's house in the centre of Muhos, 370 miles north of Helsinki.

(continued)

A police spokesman said: "We had no alternative but to shoot it. It was badly injured and confused and we couldn't get it out of the house.

Mrs Piippo, 73, was treated for minor injuries from broken glass. Her husband was not hurt.

The elk broke the table, a stove and a microwave oven before continuing into the sitting room. It apparently had given birth in the spring as it was oozing milk.

"It was probably searching for its fawn, but we found no other elk nearby," the police spokesman added.

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