A hapless driver who thought he was making an escape after crashing into a shop window was then attacked by a furious emu.
The driver, who has not been named, managed to swerve into the shopfront at an almost 90 degree angle to the road on Monday.
But when people rushed to their aid, the driver and a passenger fled the scene and ran into the angry emu.
Dean Wade, an executive chef at the Old Bell Hotel, was among those who tried to help thinking his first aid training could prove useful.
"We just assumed someone had lost control of the car but when we got there, they tried to run away," he told Wiltshire Live.
Dean gave chase to the driver for 15 minutes across allotments and out of town into fields near the river in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
They ended up coming across a farm for exotic animals where the driver leapt a fence and came face-to-face with the emu with her young.
Dean said: "The mother obviously felt threatened and proceeded to attack him.
"I'm a fisherman and I have been around swans when they are with their young and I know how protective mother birds are.
"So I thought 'there's no way I'm going in there. They are massive'".
Help was quickly at hand from Wiltshire Police who arrested the man.
Police, ambulance and fire crew were called to the main road in the town centre, were the crash took place, was closed for several hours.
A police spokesperson said: "At around 12.30pm on July 25 we received a call about a single-vehicle collision in Gloucester Street, Malmesbury, where a vehicle had collided with the front of a building.
"The driver and passenger of the vehicle were seen to leave the scene, so officers carried out a search of the local area.
"They have both now been detained and enquiries are ongoing."
