Police capture escaped zebra downtown

? An Atlanta highway turned into a circus Thursday afternoon when an escaped zebra galloped along a busy section of interstate with police in hot pursuit.

The 12-year-old animal, named Lima, was exercising outside a downtown arena in preparation for an evening show when something spooked him, said Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus spokeswoman Crystal Drake.

The zebra broke away from his trainers and bumped up against a fence, then wriggled through an opening.

He was spotted by people in downtown Atlanta around 3:30 p.m. CST, said Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Monica Luck.

Daniel Nance said he saw the zebra near the downtown MARTA transit station.

“All of a sudden a freaking zebra comes running down the street like a car,” Nance told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Five or six police cars were in hot pursuit. And a bunch of officers on foot. But then I got scared, thinking … what else is loose?”