Refiling to fix headline (off sted of)

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday November 12, 2006

Stockholm- A drunken elk has been scaring off children at a Swedish school as it defends the tree that is the source of fermenting apples giving it a daily alcohol high. The animal has got used to getting pleasantly drunk on the rotting fruit and sees the children in the nearby school as a threat to its alcohol supply, Dagen Nyheter newspaper reported Sunday.

It had got into the habit of laying down for a snooze in a defensive position in front of the tree after eating its fill, then bad-temperedly waking up and shooing off any threat.

Authorities at the Eklanda school in the central Swedish town of Moelndal had called in police - but these had failed to see the animal off, the paper said. The elk was still defending its tree.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency