Video shows camel trotting along Dubai highway

It is not known where the camel came from or where it went after it was seen among the traffic on a Dubai Marina flyover on Wednesday evening.

A screen grab of the runaway camel video.
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DUBAI // A runaway camel caught on camera weaving in and out of the Dubai traffic has become a big hit on social networking sites and YouTube.

Christopher Graham was driving over the flyover which crosses the Sheikh Zayed Road at Dubai Marina with his friend Peter Lee at 6.30 on Wednesday night when they saw the camel. “We turned on to the road in the Marina and the traffic had slowed down,” said Mr Graham. “We thought there had been an accident when all of a sudden we saw this camel going in between cars, which were all trying to get out of its way.”

It was an opportunity not to be missed, said Mr Lee, who reached for his BlackBerry when their car approached the animal on interchange 5.5.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to take a video clip and show my mates and colleagues’,” said the 36-year-old Australian. “You don’t get to see this every day, especially in Dubai Marina.”

Mr Graham, who is from the US, said it was the most unusual thing he had ever seen on the UAE roads.

Motorists tried to avoid the frightened camel by driving slowly and cautiously around it.

“Everyone was checking it out and we looked back to see if it had followed us down to Sheikh Zayed Road. I guess it went into Jumeirah Lakes Towers,” Mr Graham said.

It is not known where the camel finished or even where it started its road trip, but Mr Lee and Mr Graham both believed that it came from Jumeirah Beach Residences beach where there are camel rides for tourists. Both men were concerned for the animal’s welfare.

“As long as the camel is OK,” Mr Lee said. “It was on its own. I don’t know how it turned out. All I saw was a camel running around looking for its freedom.”

eharnan@thenational.ae