Australian police had to chase a wayward koala through the train station of a Sydney suburb on Tuesday, startling commuters with a rare urban sighting of the reclusive species.

Video footage from Casula station showed the animal inspecting an elevator before opting for the stairs. The koala then ran down a train platform, slowing traffic down as it came very close to the edge.

As law enforcement was dispatched to escort it away from the tracks, the koala gave chase and hopped over a station fence.

"All passengers, great and small, are reminded to stay behind the yellow line," Transport for New South Wales, in which Sydney is located, said in a statement.

Koalas under threat

The beloved koala is indigenous only to certain parts of the eastern and southern coasts of Australia. Seen internationally as a symbol of the country, koalas are under serious threat due to habitat destruction.

This is because of development and agriculture, but also climate change-related causes like increasing prevalent bushfires and droughts.

Koalas are listed as endangered in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, and Queensland. A government committee found in 2021 that the nationwide population was 92,000, down more than half from 185,000 twenty years earlier.

es/ab (dpa, Reuters)