By IANS
Kolkata : Panic griped visitors at the Alipur Zoological Garden here Wednesday afternoon after two chimpanzees broke open their cage and ran amok in the zoo premises, injuring some visitors.
The two chimpanzees – Rani and Babu – chased several visitors who were near their cage.
“We were sitting on the ground when we suddenly saw two chimpanzees were wildly rushing towards us. We tried to flee the spot, but one of the chimpanzees attacked my mother and injured me when I tried to rescue her,” said Alok Das, a visitor.
As the situation appeared getting out of control, the zoo authorities summoned extra force from the city police headquarters at Lalbazar to help the zoo staff.
After about 20 minutes, the high drama came to an end.
“We didn’t use any tranquilliser, or anything to recapture the chimpanzees. Our men just chased both of them and the chimpanzees again entered their cage,” Alipur Zoo director Subir Chowdhury said.
He brushed aside the allegation that the runaway chimpanzees caused injuries to some visitors. “No complaint of injury has been received so far by the zoo authority.”
He said it is not possible to monitor security all the time. Security personnel were there but they might be posted at some other place.
“The incident was very unfortunate and we would look into it so that no such incident can take place in future,” Chowdhury said.
The Alipur Zoological Garden was inaugurated by King Edward-VII in January 1876. The erstwhile East India Company allotted 45 acres of land for the zoo, which was considered to be the first Zoo in Asia.