Giant panda Zhen Zhen takes a stroll around Chinese town

Workers taken by surprise halt road repairs to let 11-year-old animal wander in peace

A giant panda surprised and delighted residents of a town in China when she went for a stroll among their homes.

Zhen Zhen, an 11-year-old who was raised in captivity and recently released into the wild, was seen roaming free in the southwestern province of Sichuan, seemingly in search of food.

She strolled beside a vegetable garden, trotted across a dirt road and climbed a tree, seemingly unfazed by the attention of a large group of onlookers.

Workers repairing the road downed tools so as not to scare her.

Researchers at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda confirmed the animal was Zhen Zhen – meaning Precious.

Born in 2007 at the San Diego Zoo in the US, she was sent to China in 2010 and had been recently released, with a tracking collar, as part of a research project.

After allowing her several hours to explore, the experts sedated and returned her to the Wolong Shenshuping Panda Base, which is part of the world’s largest breeding centre for giant pandas.