THREE little pigs didn’t go to market last week – they ran amok on an allotment site and left children at a local school squealing with delight.

The three kunekune micro pigs escaped from a garden in Marshall Avenue, St Albans, at around 2pm on Friday afternoon and headed for the Sandridge Road allotment site behind the property.

A neighbour tried to lure them through the front gate with biscuits but with the noise of traffic and children coming out of Spencer School in Watson Avenue, they decided to dig in their trotters.

Joy Bird, who is on the allotment committee and liaises with the district council and the police, said: “The minute the children heard the pigs squealing they were very excited.

“The pigs ate a few things on the allotments but more of the damage was done by the kids chasing them around.”

Both the police and the council came out at various points in the afternoon and eventually the three pygmy porkers were persuaded into a garden in Watson Avenue where police and neighbours circled them to stop them escaping again.

Joy said: “We could have kept them on the allotments but the police didn’t want them to cross the road again.”

The owner, when she arrived, was also not allowed to take the pigs back across the road and was quite happy to relinquish them. Eventually a farmer was found who was willing to come along and take them away.

Joy added: “The pigs were having the time of their lives.”