Half-tonne elephant seal blocks busy Brazil street

AN ELEPHANT seal, believed to weigh more than half a tonne, blocked a busy street in a Brazilian city at the weekend - after waddling up the beach from the Atlantic Ocean.

The enormous animal, measuring nearly 10ft in length, made his way to the bustling Avenida Atlantica, in Balneario Camboriu on Saturday afternoon, where he stopped traffic for over an hour.

Firefighters and police officers splashed water on the seal, who comically used the pedestrian crossing, to keep it wet during its foray into the town centre, which is situated in the South American country’s southern state of Santa Catarina

Large crowds of shoppers and tourists took pictures and videos before the beast eventually returned to the water, an hour-and-a-half after its adventure began.