A wolf has been put down after being badly injured when it was struck by a car on the A28 motorway in Drenthe.

The wolf survived the initial impact, near the village of Tynaarlo, but was unable to walk. A veterinary surgeon at the scene said it had suffered a shattered hip and directed it to be put to sleep with a tranquiliser gun.

Traffic was stopped in both directions after the collision at 10.40am on Monday while the injured animal was moved from the central reservation to the side of the road to be examined.

The damaged car had to be towed away from the scene. It is not known if the driver was hurt in the collision.

Councillors in the municipalities of Tynaarlo, Coevorden recently called for stricter measures to be taken to keep wolves away from people, after local residents raised concerns about safety.

A postmortem examination will be carried out by the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre at Utrecht University, while Wagningen University will examine the wolf’s carcass to establish its age, state of health and how it lived.

“These investigations will help give us a better insight into the behaviour of wolves in the Netherlands,” the provincial government said in a statement.