A huge alligator stunned supermarket shoppers by walking to the store and heading down an escalator – but he didn’t make it out alive.

The store which only just re-opened after renovations was full of staff and visitors when the animal took a walk.

The captive-bred animal had been bought by the shopping centre’s owners from a farm and had been placed in a glass tank outside the entrance.

But somehow the gator managed to escape his new home and went for a wander in the city of Hechi in southern China.

Source: mirror.co.uk