A Harris’s hawk has been finally captured after terrorising and injuring people in a village in the north of London.
According to BBC, a hawk that has been attacking villagers in Flamstead, Hertfordshire, was captured by a resident with the same name on Thursday, April 3, 2025.
The aggressive hawk which was believed to have escaped from captivity attacked around 50 people, including a 75-year-old man who ended up in the hospital, stole two woollen caps from a 91-year-old man and disrupted postal deliveries.
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The 40-year-old Steve Harris successfully manages to catch the hawk who has taken up residence in one of his garden trees.
Harris said, “It's a relief for us and the whole village. Every morning, we wake up and see it up in the tree, getting braver and braver. I've been working from home watching it, thinking we've got to get this bird gone."
“It had been chasing me around the village when I went for a run, and when I got back, it flew down to the top of my shed. The falconer had left me a cage. I was using it to protect myself, and I got brave enough when the bird was about a foot away, and I threw it over the top of it, trapping it.”
The villagers first reported about the hawk attacks early in March, with a video showing the bird swooping down on a man.
The nearby Whipsnade Zoo said that hawk does not belong to them, explaining that the bird would not be “actively hostile toward humans" unless it felt threatened.
Flamstead Parish Council thanked Harris for his “quick thinking” and capturing the bird safely.
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