A giant panda has been returned to his enclosure at Copenhagen Zoo after enacting an impressive escape.
Seven-year-old Xing Er, who arrived at the zoo last year, was caught on CCTV breaking out of the newly-built £19 million (160 million kroner) Panda House in the early hours of Monday.
The surveillance footage showed how "the male panda crawls up a metal pole, which is studded with three rows of electrical wires ... and then crawls out into the garden," Zoo spokesman Bengt Holst said.
Mr Holst said the Danish park was now looking at reinforcing security around the enclosure "to ensure that it does not happen again. "
Zoo staff reacted "quickly and efficiently," he said, with the animal being corned and sedated with a dart without being harmed.
The incident took place before the animal park opened to the public for the day.
"It doesn't change the fact that we want to avoid that kind of situation in the future," Mr Holst said.
The enclosure to house the pandas from China's southwestern city of Chengdu, was inaugurated by the country's Queen Margrethe and other dignitaries in April 2019.
Beijing lends out pandas as a sign of goodwill. Any cubs born during the 15-year loan period are considered China's property.
