Escaped Minion stops traffic in Dublin

A 12 metre Minion caused traffic chaos in Dublin after it escaped from a nearby fairground and landed on a busy road.

The Gardai — the Irish police — were called to the Santry area of Dublin at 3pm on Monday. With the help of passers-by they managed to let the air out of the yellow inflatable, a promotional character from the film Minions, which began life in the hit animation Despicable Me.

Erin Van Londen, who witnessed the incident and alerted the police, said she pulled out of the traffic queue to be at a safe distance from the inflatable.

“We were driving down to the shopping centre and we saw the giant balloon coming towards us,” Van Londen told the Irish Independent.

“I had seen it yesterday in the carnival when we were driving down and I’d said to my boyfriend, ‘There is an absolutely huge inflatable Minion in there.’ So today when we saw it, we thought ‘Oh wait, it must have toppled over.’”

Van Londen said that nobody was injured and that the incident had been “a bit of fun”.

But Dublin city councillor Paul McAuliffe tweeted: “Escaped Minion at Omni in Santry may seem hilarious but its a dispicable breach of health & safety”.