A thief who broke into a jewellery shop fled the scene on a getaway donkey, trotting through the empty streets in the dead of night.

The man, identified only as MC, made his escape after burgling a store in Kayseri, central Turkey, on Tuesday.

Security footage showed the masked suspect using a forklift to prise open the metal shutters of the shop, where he allegedly stole 150g of gold.

First he broke a window to get to the shop counter, then pushed the glass-topped counter on its side and leapt over it before searching through the contents that had tipped out onto the floor.

The suspect then made his escape by jumping back over the cupboards and out the window.

Once outside, he was captured on several cameras riding through the empty town on a donkey.

The 26-year-old suspect was later found and arrested by police, who had identified him through the CCTV footage. Video showed him being walked out of a station by two officers.

Police officers later found the stolen gold jewellery, which had been wrapped in a black plastic bag and buried in a muddy patch of land.

The goods, which included rings, necklaces and bracelets, were returned to their owner, police said.

The burglar might have done well to research the effectiveness of using a donkey as a getaway vehicle before planning his raid: in Colombia in 2013, thieves were thwarted when their getaway donkey made too much noise and alerted the police.

A group of men had stolen the donkey to use for their escape as they took food from a shop. But the 10-year-old animal, named Xavi, refused to co-operate and brayed so loudly that police came to investigate, prompting the criminals to flee.