FREETOWN (Reuters) - Armed Sierra Leonean police are hunting up to 20 chimpanzees which killed a local taxi driver and injured three American visitors after they broke out of a wildlife sanctuary, officials said on Tuesday.The animals killed local taxi driver Issa Kanu and bit and mauled three U.S. employees of a construction company helping to build the new U.S. embassy in Freetown.
Amarasekaran said sanctuary staff and armed police were still trying to round up about 20 of the runaway chimps, including two adult males called "Bruno" and "Philip."
He believes the males may have led the attack on the visitors after more than 30 of the apes managed to break out of their enclosure in the sanctuary.
"Maybe the visitors panicked and threw sticks and stones. Chimps mob people. If you try and defend yourself you can get hurt," he added. He advised any humans attacked by chimpanzees to "be submissive, lie on the ground."
Local villagers were keeping their children at home. "We're not letting our children walk on the forest road because these chimpanzees could get hold of them and kill them," Regent Town village elder, Jonathan Harding, told Reuters.
1 comment:
How dare you use an image of Bear in this story about killer chimps.
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