Cats Invade G-20 Summit Stage, Bringing A Welcome Laugh

Serious and sober talks are being held at this week's G-20 Summit — but the event briefly became a source of comedic relief, after three cats took over its main stage. Unimpressed with their rarefied surroundings, the cats eventually wandered off.

Some of the world's most powerful leaders are attending the summit of the Group of 20 in Antalya, Turkey, where President Obama, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and others have discussed strategies to fight terrorism in the wake of Friday's attacks in Paris.

But for a brief moment, the summit was taken over by cats that emerged unannounced onto the stage to trot around and sniff a few flowers before yielding the spotlight back to the dignitaries.

The impromptu catwalk occurred Sunday morning. From the rolling coverage provided by Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News:

"10.35 a.m. Cats walk down the stage at the G-20 Summit as the head organizer attempts to shoo them."

The cats are reportedly strays — but one reader used the CBC's Facebook page to take issue with that label, replying: "They're not strays. They're the leaders of Kittistan and Catlandia."

If they want to prevent feline forays like the one that broke out in Turkey, security teams might look into deploying cucumbers around the venue's entrance.

As two recent compilation videos of cat-reactions show, cats have a rather strong response when they're confronted with a cucumber. Here's one example, from the Huffington Post: