Cop Dies in Encounter With Rooster

Police officers in the Philippines are mourning the loss of one of their own, killed in an encounter with a rooster. Lieutenant Christian Bolok was breaking up an illegal cockfight in San Jose, Northern Samar province, on Monday when he picked up a rooster and was struck in his left thigh with a steel blade, known as a gaff, that was attached to the animal's leg. The blade cut Bolok's femoral artery, per the BBC. "He was rushed to the provincial hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival due to heavy blood loss," police said, per CNN.

"This is the first time in my 25 years as a policeman that I lost a man due to a fighting cock's spur," Colonel Arnel Apud, the provincial police chief, tells AFP. He "sacrificed his own life in the name of service," he adds, per the state-run Philippines News Agency. Licensed cockfights are usually allowed on Sundays, legal holidays, and during fiestas in the Philippines but have been outlawed amid the coronavirus pandemic in an effort to prevent large gatherings. Seven roosters were seized and three people were arrested. Police are searching for three others. (More Philippines stories.)