Zoo locked down when gibbon swings out of enclosure

Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A British zoo was placed in temporary lockdown when a gibbon "accidentally" escaped from the gibbon enclosure at the facility.

Karen Clarke, chief operating officer of the Twycross Zoo in Atherstone, England, said visitors were ushered to indoor areas Thursday and the zoo was placed in temporarily lockdown when a male agile gibbon was found to have exited his enclosure.

"We would like to thank our visitors for their patience during a brief interruption to their day out this afternoon when Storm, one of our gibbons, accidentally over swung onto an area on the edge of his habitat," Clarke told Birmingham Live.

"Our professional animal team worked together to corner off the area in order to allow him a safe route back into his home where he quickly returned," she said.

Zoo visitors said the incident took place about 2:20 p.m. and lasted about 15 to 20 minutes.

A gibbon previously escaped from its enclosure at the same zoo in May 2018. Officials said the Siamese gibbon never made it to any publicly accessible areas, but the zoo was put into temporarily lockdown as a precaution.