A zebra that escaped its pen and roamed freely for hours through the South Korean capital, captivating the internet and sparking thousands of memes, is safely back at the zoo, officials told AFP Friday.

The zebra spent three hours Thursday trotting along roads and dodging cars before he was finally cornered by park wardens. Sero, aged 3, was caught using a safety fence after he entered a narrow alleyway and tranquilised, with photographs posted on social media showing him being transported, while sleeping, back to the zoo.

According to the zoo, Sero, who was born in 2019, was something of a "mummy's boy", and had previously been acting up. He started behaving erratically after his parents died -- his mother in 2020 and his father just last year -- according to a video posted on the zoo's YouTube channel in January.