A dog walker was stunned to have his evening stroll along a seaside promenade interrupted by a grey seal pup seemingly on the way to the cinema.
The adventurous seal pup was spotted by a man who was walking his dog at about 8.45pm on Wednesday at Marine Parade in Great Yarmouth.
The man said he believed the seal had been in the dunes on the beach, where a group of people were shining a torch.
Moments later, he turned around to see the young seal on the path behind him.
The pup then began to walk towards Marine Parade in the direction of the ABC Cinema, which prompted the man to attempt to steer him to safety using a washing up bowl.
The seal pup turned back to the sands, before the man called the Marine and Wildlife Rescue team, which arrived in around 10 minutes.
Dan Goldsmith, chairman of the Marine and Wildlife Rescue team, said the pup was making good progress before he was stopped.
"It went thundering up the walkway. That was when the dog walker turned around and saw what it was and had to use a washing-up bowl to sort of scare it away. That was quite clever and seemed to work," he said.
"We got there pretty quickly and found it had a bite wound on its abdomen but apart from that it was quite fine.
"They end up on the the prom and paths very often but we wouldn't expect that at Great Yarmouth unless it was a traumatic event as the beach is so long.
"The seal was a bit thin, but fine to be on the beach, so we relocated it further down and now hopefully it will start to recover and should be fine."
Mr Goldsmith said it was unclear what had bitten the seal.
He said people in Great Yarmouth should get used to seeing seals in the town more often after his team had seen a surge of arrivals on the beach, but urged people not to contact them unless a seal was unwell.
He added: "People should expect to see them now, they're fine to be on the beach.
"We only want to hear about sick ones as sometimes we'll get multiple calls about the same seal and it makes it a bit difficult, so unless they're unwell they should be left alone on the beach."
It comes after six pups were brought to the care of the RSPCA's East Winch hospital after they were separated from their mother during Storm Arwin.
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