Chaos rumbled through the London Zoo this afternoon when a gorilla escaped from his enclosure. The gorilla has since been tranquillized and captured, according to London Police.
The BBC reports the animal escaped sometime around 5:10 pm local time, when zoo visitors reported being locked inside of a cafe. Within in 10 minutes heavily-armed police arrived, and at about 6:20 pm, staff received word that the gorilla had been recaptured. By 7 pm, the incident had been “concluded.”
“We were having a cup of coffee in the main restaurant area when they locked us all in and said there was an incident,” witness Brad Evans told the BBC Radio London, according to The Independent. “They gave us free teas and coffees and obviously we were asking what was going on and they told us that a gorilla had got out of its enclosure. As we were waiting we saw the police turning up in numbers with loads of guns.”
@SkyNewsBreak lock in at London Zoo – Gorilla on the loose? pic.twitter.com/X9ukqgrI9o
— hannah (@hannahod) October 13, 2016
#Gorilla on the loose? Huddling in a building at the #londonzoo after staff told us to get into a building quickly! pic.twitter.com/BBbFvBLTn6
— Dr. Jonathan T. Mall (@CognitiveTwo) October 13, 2016
Police helicopter over the #londonzoo.. Looking for a loose ape? pic.twitter.com/ODGdk6WSyU
— Dr. Jonathan T. Mall (@CognitiveTwo) October 13, 2016
Stuck inside Butterfly Paradise at London Zoo as helicopters and sirens all around, something happening with gorillas. #Weird
— C҉R҉I҉S҉ (@crisclark) October 13, 2016
Seven gorillas reportedly reside at the zoo. While there’s been no official word about which one escaped, BuzzFeed spoke to one employee who said it could be Kumbuka, a western lowland silverback who arrived at the zoo in 2013.
“He’s a fucking psycho, that ape,” the employee told BuzzFeed. “He’s smashed the enclosure glass a couple of times.”
https://twitter.com/RobHogan4/status/786614585864359936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
If this sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it is. This past May, a gorilla named Harambe was shot to death at the Cincinnati Zoo after small child fell into his enclosure. The outrage over the gorilla’s death inspired a meme that today’s incident reignited.
Gorilla on the loose in London zoo, they are starting an uprising for Harambe.
— Ryan Greenhalgh (@RyanGreenhalgh6) October 13, 2016
Do it for Harambe. #gorilla #IndependenceDay
— spanial (@spanial) October 13, 2016
We’ll update this post as soon as more gorilla news becomes available.
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Posted By: Taylor Berman
