A REBEL cow made a break for freedom from slaughterhouse workers on Monday, startling passers-by as it hurtled towards them on Ilkley's main shopping street.

The runaway beast began its great escape at Ilkley Abattoir, on Little Lane, where it bolted while being offloaded from a truck.

As the brown cow careered along Little Lane, shocked pedestrians and drivers assumed it was a bull on the loose and contacted police.

Nicky Solloway, 33, of East Parade, said she was amazed to see what she thought was a bull racing down the road.

"We were driving along Little Lane and just saw this dark shadow running towards us.At first glance I thought it was a bull," she said.

"I just laughed. It ran in front of the car and then on to the pavement."

By half past five the heifer had reached Brook Street.

"The beast was seen heading up Brook Street at a pace," said a spokesman for Ilkley police.

"We had a call to say it was heading for the cattle grid at the top of Wells Road before it disappeared into the gloom.

"At about 9pm someone else spotted it at the junction of Cowpasture Road and Ben Rhydding Road."

And, like the infamous Tamworth Two pigs, who avoided capture for days after escaping from an abattoir in 1998, the bovine fugitive is thought to still be at large on the moor.

A spokesman for Ilkley Abattoir confirmed that the cow had not yet been found.