When you visit Marks and Spencer you might expect your visit to be a little dear.
You might not expect to bump into a little deer.
But a muntjac named Lucy caused a stir when she unexpectedly entered the busy Rampant Horse Street M&S and got stuck behind the glass barrier of a ground-floor escalator.
Luckily quick-thinking staff managed to calm her down and closed off the area to shocked shoppers.
A spokesman for M&S thanked Ian Haywood from Hillside Animal Sanctuary for coming out to the city centre store on Tuesday afternoon to help rescue the frightened deer.
He said: "We're grateful to our Norwich store colleagues for their swift response when an unexpected visitor entered the store.
"The team moved quickly to keep the muntjac deer calm, and with the help of Hillside Animal Sanctuary, it was safely rescued."
Wendy Valentine, founder of Hillside Animal Sanctuary, said: "This call was certainly one to remember when M&S contacted us to report that a muntjac deer had become trapped in the casing of a ground-floor escalator.
"When Ian arrived, he found that M&S staff had done everything possible to keep the little deer as calm and quiet as possible, including shutting the store until help arrived.
"He was then able to safely free her from the glass barrier without causing further distress."
The muntjac suffered only minor injuries and is now recovering at one of the sanctuary’s sites.
Kevin Murphy from Norfolk Wildlife Rescue revealed it is surprising to see large mammals in the city centre.
He added that muntjacs usually prefer foraging in grass areas in Norwich around churches and near the castle rather than browsing the shelves of an upmarket food hall.
But it is likely she ended up in shop after getting “spooked” when moving between wilder pockets of land.
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