Rabbits, freed by roof collapse, multiply

NYKOPING, Sweden, April 11 (UPI) -- When snow caved in the roof on a rabbit show in Sweden, the cages flew open and rabbits went forth and multiplied, breeders say.

Heavy snow had collapsed the roof at a tennis complex in Nykoping in February, and with cages flung open, many of the 1,648 rabbits there for Sweden's premier rabbit exhibition roamed freely amid debris and did what rabbits are known to do, the Swedish news agency TT reports.

Now at least 50 rabbit breeders say they got surprise litters, the Sodermanlands Nyheter newspaper reports.

"They made new friends and they became a bit aroused by the incident. The builders told me it was a veritable circus in there," one rabbit breeder told an affiliate of public broadcaster SVT.

The pairings of well-bred rabbits produced all sorts of offspring -- resulting from couplings of Dwarf Hotots and British Giants, Lionheads and mounted Himalayans, among many others.