 |
| Terrifying scenes as gorilla drags the toddler around the US zoo enclosure |
WASHINGTON: Workers at the Cincinnati Zoo in the US state of
Ohio shot and killed a gorilla on Saturday after a three-year-old boy fell into
its enclosure, officials said.
The boy crawled through a barrier into the enclosure and
fell into a moat around 4 pm (1600 GMT), zoo director Thane Maynard told
reporters.
The gorilla, a 17-year-old male named Harambe weighing more
than 400 pounds (180 kilograms), “went down and got him,” he said.
Witnesses said the gorilla dragged the screaming boy around
the habitat, local media reported.
The zoo’s dangerous animal response team shot and killed the
gorilla around 10 minutes after the boy first entered it.
He was hospitalized with injuries that were not
life-threatening, media quoted the police as saying.
The zoo’s response team decided to shoot the gorilla rather
than tranquilize him because a tranquilizer would not have taken effect
immediately, Maynard said.
“It seemed by our own dangerous animals response team to be
a life-threatening situation,” he said. “They saved that little boy’s life.”
The zoo houses 11 gorillas, according to its website. “We’ve
never had a situation like this,” Maynard said.
-AFP
Post a Comment