Gorilla on the run turns out to be charity runner!

London, Sep 26 (ANI): When motorists saw a gorilla on the run, they thought he had escaped from the zoo and reported it to the police, but it only turned out to be a charity runner.

And lucky for Rory Coleman, 45, that the officers decided to approach him quietly rather than use a tranquilliser dart.

Coleman had donned the ape outfit he bought from a fancy dress shop to take part in a 143-mile jog in aid of gorilla conservation from his home in Mansfield, Notts, to London.

The father of six only came to know about the mix-up when a police car pulled up opposite him as he padded along a cycle path beside a busy dual carriageway near Leicester - not far from Twycross Zoo.

"They got out the car and walked across laughing, and one of them raised their hand for me to stop," the Daily Express quoted Coleman, who has run 623 marathons and 150 ultra marathons in the last 10 years, as saying.

"I pulled the gorilla mask off and told them I'd come quietly as long as they gave me a banana.

"They started laughing and told me they'd had several calls from drivers saying they'd seen a gorilla on the loose," he added.

After interviewing him at the roadside the officers, Eddie and Pete, gave him a 10-pound donation and let him go.

Coleman, who has raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity, running an average of one marathon a week for the last 15 years, was running for The Gorilla Organisation, an international charity dedicated to saving the animals from extinction. (ANI)