Thor the walrus has appeared in Northumberland, 100 miles north of Scarborough, where he drew a crowd of hundreds and led to the town’s New Year fireworks display being cancelled.

A large crowd quickly gathered in Blyth on Monday lunchtime after a walrus was spotted resting on a wooden pontoon at the yacht club.

The assumption is that it is Thor, the juvenile male who parked himself on a slipway in Scarborough harbour on the evening of December 30 and slipped back into the water just under 24 hours later.

Thor, who was the first walrus recorded in Yorkshire, had been spotted earlier in December swimming near the Hampshire coast.

Scarborough Council decided to cancel its New Year’s Eve fireworks display as part of a multi-agency effort to stop the massive animal getting agitated and coming to harm.

According to a report from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) about Thor’s visit to Yorkshire, thousands of people visited the harbour to get a glimpse of him, with up to 500 people behind the cordon at any one time.

The report said Thor slept through most of the day as people flocked to see him – including some from the other end of the country and one family from France.

BDMLR said police helped deal with a small number of difficult members of public, including one person “breaking the cordon and entering private property, attempting to access the walrus for photographs”.

Thor left Scarborough at about 4.30pm on Saturday after first being spotted late on Friday night.

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