Beaver shot in downtown Larvik
Time for a break, for something irrelevant and irreverent. If the title of this one isn't bad enough, the text just gets better...

Joakim Moltzau was delivering newspapers early in the morning when he found a somewhat worn out beaver wandering in downtown Larvik. After failing to lead the animal down to the local river, he called police for assistance to move the beaver to safety.

Police arrived, before getting a handgun and shooting the animal three times.

"Two men came out, one went over to the beaver, the other got the pistol and loaded it. They had decided in advance to kill it," Moltzau told newspaper Østlands-Posten.

"It was terrible. First and foremost I feel very sorry for the beaver, but I am also skeptical about police firing a revolver in the middle of the city," Moltzau said.

Police assessed the animal as injured and decided it had to be put down, an assessment Moltzau did not fully share.

"Yes, it had a scrape on a back leg, but it didn't have to die," Moltzau told the newspaper. "They shot it in the back, but you don't kill the animal like that, I have hunted beaver and you need to shoot in the neck."

Police shot the beaver in the back twice before Moltzau ran over and told them where to aim. He said it took them about seven minutes to kill the animal, from the time the first shot was fired.

Several witnesses gathered after hearing the first shot.

Norwegian police do not normally bear firearms.