VIENNA Vienna's fire brigade caught a crocodile in the River Danube canal on Thursday, just weeks after Germany halted its search for an escaped 6.5 foot reptile, the mayor's office said. But any wild speculation that the reptile could possibly be the one Germany was hunting for was immediately dampened.

"That crocodile can't be ours," a spokesman for the River German crocodile was last seen, told Reuters.

"Ours was 1.5 to two meters long -- and it would be a damned long way to swim," he added in reference to the more than 400 miles distance as the crow flies to Vienna. The crocodile found swimming in the Danube canal that snakes through central Vienna measured between 24-28 inches. The animal was taken to the Schoenbrunn Zoo. Technically, it is possible to swim through the Danube.