A MOTHER duck and her nine ducklings caused traffic chaos near Purley as buses and cars ground to a halt to avoid their stately waddle for a whole mile down a busy road.
"It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen," said resident David Hooper.
"It's real front page news here and everyone is talking about it.
"They were nearly run over and a bus had to make an emergency stop to avoid them."
The ducks appeared from nowhere near Whitefield Avenue last Thursday lunchtime and began their procession along the road on, eventually ending up in Beaumont School an hour later.
Anita Dyer, who lives near the tennis courts, said she saw the family and rushed inside to get a paddling pool to try and lure them away from the road.
"Cars were stopping all over the place to avoid them and there was one very near miss.
"At one point, they were huddling in a hedge so we called the RSPCA and the Wildlife Trust but neither would do anything. We were really disgusted with them actually..
Mr Hooper said: "It was a real day of humanity and showed up the RSPCA for being completely robotic in not paying any attention."
The ducks proceeded into the car park of Beaumont Primary School where staff tried to keep them from the road with food and water. Eventually, the mother led her ducklings onto the school's playing fields and they disappeared into a hedge.
