Escaped monkey at British zoo was a stuffed toy

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The Blackpool Zoo in England said reports of an escaped animal inside the facility were the result of a planned drill involving a stuffed toy monkey.

The zoo said in a Facebook post Tuesday that there was no actual monkey on the loose the previous day.

"If you were in the zoo yesterday, you might have heard reports that we had an escaped animal. We can now confirm that the rumors are true and we did deal with a situation regarding an escaped monkey," the post said.

"Luckily in this case, the monkey was of the soft toy variety and the situation had been orchestrated by our health and safety manager. In the same way schools and businesses run regular fire drills, we run regular animal escape drills to test our response in the unlikely event one of our animals does escape its enclosure," officials wrote.

"We're delighted to report that the escapee was returned to its 'enclosure' swiftly and safely. We can also confirm that no staff, visitors or animals were harmed in the process (although the soft toy is a little grubby now)," the post reads.