Car thief held after stand-off with boars

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police pursuing a car thief through a dark forest turned rescuers when the man became cornered by a family of angry wild boar.

Officers caught the man's passenger after the pair rammed into a squad car on a cross-country chase and leapt from the stolen Opel, police in the eastern city of Schwerin said.

But they initially lost track of the 18-year-old driver during the night-time pursuit when he fled deep into the forest.

"Then he ran into the family of boars, and the head of the family squared up to him," a police spokesman said on Friday. "So he stood there, put his hands up, and called for help."

Officers rescued the man from the boars, then arrested him.

(Reporting by Dave Graham)