Caterpillars stop train in China
In the north of China a train ground to a halt due to hordes of caterpillars crossing the railroad tracks in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The freight train was forced to slow down first, and then stop for three hours. According to Xinhua agency, the caterpillars had covered about a kilometer of the tracks. The train was able to move only after road workers resorted to shovels and brooms to clear the rails from this unexpected impediment.
Entomologists believe that the caterpillars were forced to set off in search of food after they had picked clean the leaves of apricot trees on a nearby hill.