Chimps' break for lunch forces public from zoo

10 hours 34 mins ago
Reuters

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Chester Zoo, the country's most popular wildlife attraction, was evacuated on Sunday after 30 chimpanzees escaped from their enclosure. Skip related content

The animals made their escape at lunchtime and found their way into a keeper area where their food is normally prepared.

Visitors were asked to leave the 110-acre zoo as keepers rounded up the chimps.

"We had an army of chimps eating their way through the keeper's kitchen and the decision was taken, quite rightly, to evacuate," a spokeswoman said.

"By around 4 pm we had managed to get all the chimps back in their enclosure, some of them with very full bellies."

There were no injuries to members of the public or staff and the zoo said the decision to evacuate was taken as a precautionary measure. It apologised for the incident and an investigation was underway into how the animals escaped.

Chester Zoo, in Cheshire, north west England, is home to more than 7,000 animals and attracts more than a million visitors each year.

(Reporting by Christina Fincher; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

click me

i was there when this happened. though we thought it was only one or two not 30! they kept us inside the ark cafe till about 4pm

I read about this on my phone at 2 in the afternoon (aus time), i was suprised to hear about it

Was it scary shadow?

well when it happened we didn't think nothing of it. it wasn't until after they were put backm into the enclosure that we realised how serious it actually was and that made us a bit panicky. the best thing was that they were on the one side of the zoo and we were on the other. funny last time something like this happened was when the monorail got stuck above the lions about 13 years ago and we had to wait for it to be repaired. lets just say those lions looked a bit peckish at the time

You should stop going the zoo Shadow

after getting stranded above lions, trapped by a bunch of chimps and somehow pi##ing off a rhino by looking at it. i think blue planet's starting to look very safe all of a sudden.

try not to anger the tuna in the glass tunnel

for a tuna thats a very big tuna...