Two water buffaloes startled residents of an inner-Sydney suburb this morning, as they pelted 2 km (1.2 miles) down a city street past disbelieving pedestrians, while car drivers scurried to get out of the way.

Eyewitnesses told local media the buffaloes looked agitated, having escaped from a city park where an advertisement was being filmed.

"I was just waiting for the bus and instead of a bus, two random buffalo ran past," Abril Felman, a student at the University of Sydney campus nearby, told Reuters by telephone.

Firefighters rounded up the animals and live-tweeted the operation, saying they used ladders and firefighting gear to corral the animals into a makeshift pen, until handlers from the film set took them away.

"We were all standing back, we were all going 'That's really random'," Felman said.

"It's a very diverse community that lives there," she added. "It's not strange to see people dressed up in costumes running around at night. It's a bit of a free-spirited bohemian culture."