Man attacked by swan says it was like a dragon

An engineer was attacked by a belligerent swan whilst trying to carry out his work at Ruthin Gaol in Denbighshire, Wales. Ronaldo Verches, 52, who works for Rhyl-based company ACS Wade, was trying to carry out a routine service on chiller equipment which is situated in an outside building at the back of the tourist attraction, when he was attacked by an angry swan. “I was opening the door to get the the compound where the chiller is when I heard a really loud noise,” said Ronaldo, who lives in Abergele but is originally from the Philippines.



“I didn’t know what the noise could be so I tried to open the door further so I could have a look. That was then this creature flew at me. I didn’t know it was a swan at first, I just knew it was a bird that was very very angry! I closed the door and ran to get the manager and some of the staff. They didn’t believe me that I’d just been attacked by a bird, they asked me if I’d been smoking something!” Some of the staff followed Ronaldo back to where he had seen the bird, and then fled back to the office when they heard the noise he had described.

“I went back down to try again, armed with a broom to protect myself this time,” added Ronaldo. “I tried to get back in, but it was determined to keep attacking me, and it was making such a noise. I saw it was a swan, a young one because it was brown, but it was massive, like a dragon! The staff came back and tried to give it some bread so we could help it get out, we didn't know how long it had been there. It had beome trapped in the compound somehow but eventually we managed to help it out.



“One of the staff had to stop the traffic while I guided it back across the road, over the bridge and back to the lake a few hundred yards away. It was much calmer once we’d managed to get it out of where it was trapped.” Ronaldo says he is relieved that the swan didn’t hurt him, but says that he definitely needed the broom. “It was quite a funny situation, and I was so happy when we got it to safety,” he added. “I’ve lived in many places: the Philippines where I’m from, as well as Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and Borneo, but have never been attacked by an animal like that before.” A Denbighshire Council spokesman confirmed the incident had happened.