Shakira was recently on a nature walk with her eight-year-old son in a Barcelona park when the unthinkable happened: She was attacked by a couple of wild boars. Thankfully, the singer and her son left the incident unharmed, but the animals did manage to steal some of the singer’s personal items.
Shakira detailed the bizarre series of events on her Instagram Stories. According to NME, the animals took off into the woods with her bag, which had her phone in it, and “destroyed everything.” She was eventually able to recover the purse, which was left completely torn, but told her followers she “stood up” to the animals during the attack.
Though the situation could be written off as a freak accident, wild boars are actually a huge problem in certain parts of the world. They are listed as an invasive species and are estimated to have populations of over 10 million in Europe alone. Barcelona itself has been dealing with the animal for years and Shakira’s incident was just the latest in a string of attacks in the city. Per a report from BBC, Barcelona’s police department has received about 1,187 phone calls about wild boar attacks since 2016. Previous calls to police have reported that the animals have attacked dogs, destroyed cat-feeders, and held up traffic by running into the city streets. Back in 2013, an officer even tried to take matters into their own hands by firing a gun at a boar, but ending up accidentally shooting their partner instead.
