Cowboy lassoes runaway calf riding on moving police car driven by Tennessee sheriff

An innovative approach was needed to capture the animal

An escaped calf making a hasty break for it down a highway proved no match for a quick-thinking sheriff and his cowboy counterpart.

The calf was loose on Lake Highway in Henry County, Tennessee, when Sheriff Monte Belew and David Bevill managed to lasso the animal from a moving patrol car.

A video shot by Belew, who was driving the vehicle, shows Bevill perching on the cars’ bonnet as it approaches the runaway calf.

“We got a calf out in the middle of Lake Highway,” Belew can be heard to be saying.

“We’re fixing to try and rope him right here.”

As the patrol car pulls up alongside the calf, Bevill is seen to achieve a perfectly aimed lasso.

Realising the game is up, the boisterous bovine stops stubbornly, momentarily tipping Bevill off balance.

“We just roped him,” Belew shouts triumphantly.

“Tie him to the front of my car!”

The sheriff posted the video to Facebook, where it has accumulated more than 3 million views so far.

“Hats off to my ole buddy David Bevill!” he wrote.