POLICE were called to a Canvey street to round up a bull after yobs set it free.

Officers were called to Northwick Road, Canvey, after the white bull was spotted making its way towards Morrisons superstore at 5.30am on Tuesday morning after escaping from a field off Roscommon Way and Haven Road.

Officers were forced to close the road while they attempted to corner the animal outside McDonald’s restaurant and remove it from the road away from oncoming traffic.

David Lazell, who owns the animal, claims yobs driving quad bikes broke on to his land and deliberately set the bull free.

Mr Lazell said: “At around 6.15 in the morning I was contacted about a white bull wandering, in Northwick Road, near McDonald’s.

“By the time I got there the bull had been put back in the field. I spent two hours trying to find out where he had got out and why the other 30 hadn’t got out as well. It’s really odd as usually if one gets out, the rest of them will.

“The only assumption I could reach is someone had removed part of the fence.

“I came down and found some idiot had been here with a quad bike and thought it was funny to smash down one of my fences.

“So they could have again been set loose and causedamajor incident.

I put these fences up for a reason to protect the livestock and the public.

“He is quite a quiet bull, but if you wind him up he will get agitated and if something happened, it wouldn’t be these idiots who would suffer, it would be me or the bull."

A spokeswoman from Essex Police said: “Police were contacted at about 5.35am after reports of a bull in the road heading towards Morrisons.

“Officers cornered the animal on a small bit of grassland by McDonald’s and the bull was taken back to its field by 6.50am.

“It was quite active and fairly aggressive, so it required the roads to be closed.

“Before it was returned, we rang local farmers to find out where it came from.”

On Wednesday morning a group of cows also escaped from the RSPB West Canvey Marsh blocking the junction of Canvey Road and Ferry Road forcing the police to clear the scene.

However, it is not clear what caused the incident.

Mr Lazell added: “This has been an ongoing problem for years and years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the two incidents were linked.

“The police need to get tougher with these people and instead of issuing warnings they should confiscate the bikes and send a clear message.

“I’m going to be moving my bulls away now because I cannot afford to keep them out there and have sleepless nights about them being let out.”