3 escaped chimpanzees recaptured in Sweden; 4 shot dead – 104.5 WOKV
STOCKHOLM — (AP) — Officials at a Swedish zoo managed to bring back three chimpanzees that had broken out of their enclosure to safety, but four others were shot dead.
Furuvik Zoo said in a statement on Saturday that the surviving animals are now being cared for and one that is injured is receiving veterinary care.
The monkeys had escaped on Wednesday and some of them got out of the monkey house where they lived. Officials were forced to shoot them because of the danger to the public. Two were shot in the zoo and one was confirmed dead inside the monkey house. When rangers were finally able to enter on Saturday, they found the body of a fourth chimpanzee.
“What has happened is a great tragedy and a great failure on our part,” the zoo said in a statement on Facebook.
“We all feel enormous sadness about what has happened and mourn our beloved chimpanzees Linda, Torsten, Santino and Manda. … We are very keen to get to the bottom of how this could have happened and the investigation can show where we have (failed) or if we could have acted differently.”
The zoo identified the surviving chimpanzees as Selma, Maria-Magdalena and Tjobbe, and said Selma’s injuries are being treated.
Furuvik Zoo is located near Gävle, 165 kilometers (100 miles) north of Stockholm. It is part of a theme park. According to the park’s website, it is also the only primate research station in the Nordics.
It is not the first time in recent months that animals have escaped from Swedish zoos. In October, a venomous king cobra escaped from its terrarium at a zoo in Sweden but returned on its own after a week.
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