Driver hits elk and runs off with slice of thigh

A car driver involved in a collision with an elk on the E22 motorway in Blekinge in southern Sweden, claimed a slice of meat from the animal's thigh before fleeing the scene in a callous hit and run incident that has left a local hunter seething.

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"To violate game in this way in unprecedented. I am lost for words," said Mikael Lundin, a hunter responsible for tracking down injured animals, to the local Sydöstran daily.

Collisions with wild animals are a common occurrence in some parts of Sweden, despite improved security and fencing in recent years. When drivers collide with an elk or other game they are required to inform the police who get in touch with the local hunter responsible for tracking the animal and ending its suffering.

But when this driver on the E22 near Brömsebro in Blekinge collided with a cow elk, they took the chance to claim a piece of the animal, presumably for later consumption.

"This is a case of very low moral fibre, of butchery and pure theft," Lundin told the newspaper.

According to the newspaper several passing cars noted the offending vehicle parked by the side of the road with its hazard lamps on. Although the animal is reported to have landed in the ditch by the side of the main road, it remains unclear whether it was dead while the driver sliced off a chunk of the elk's thigh before fleeing the scene.

The accident was not brought to the attention of the authorities until the morning after when a worried calf was seen anxiously running up and down the bank by the ditch.

"It is perhaps not that unusual that people leave the scene of collisions with wild game, but here he had first sliced off a large chunk of the elk's thigh, with what appears to be not insignificant butcher skills. Presumably to take home to eat, or perhaps to give to the dog," Lundin told the newspaper.

The police are reportedly unable to rule the possibility that the more than one person was involved in the incident.