Pig escapes slaughterhouse truck in Guangxi, China
Determined: Babe scales the side of the lorry (Picture: Rex)

This little piggy will not be going to market after escaping from a moving truck on the way to a slaughterhouse.

The sow, who has since been nicknamed Babe, after the Hollywood film, was captured jumping 16ft to freedom in south China.

A witness said the pig climbed over the backs of her fellow porkers before leaping out of the slaughterhouse van.

Pig escapes slaughterhouse truck in Guangxi, China
Leap of faith: The pig jumps from the truck (Picture: Rex)

Miraculously she escaped unhurt and has now been adopted by police who responded to the incident in the Guangxi region.

‘She was safe and sound after her leap,’ said a police spokesman, ‘but found herself lost in the big city.

‘If we hadn’t have got to her he would have undoubtedly found himself at the end of a blade wielded by a local who would have enjoyed pork for days to come.’

Pig escapes slaughterhouse truck in Guangxi, China
Lost in the big city (Picture: Rex)

He added: ‘She saw one chance of freedom by clambering on the backs of the other pigs and took it.

‘She deserves her chance of life and she has got it. She will never be eaten here.’

Babe is being kept at the police station and is living happily in a pen usually reserved for a police dog.