Ape injures girl following zoo escape

Published Jul 15 2012, 20:46 BST  |  By Paul Millar

Five apes escaped from their enclosure at a German animal park earlier this week.

One of the chimpanzees in question injured a 5-year-old girl during the break-out, a zoo spokeswoman confirmed to The Local.

Simone Hagenmayer said that four of the five chimps "had a quick look around and then jumped pretty quickly back into their compound.

"The fifth and oldest chimp went off to visit the head gorilla. He's getting on a bit, so we offered him a ladder to get back into the enclosure."

Some 2,500 visitors were evacuated from Hannover's Experience Zoo - based in the northern city of Hamburg - on Wednesday (July 11).

The primates used wood that had fallen into their pen from recent gardening work to climb out and run for freedom.

The injured girl sustained only light wounds, after one of the apes knocked her down while making its exit.