Panicking zoo visitors were hurried to safety yesterday after a gibbon escaped from its enclosure.
Staff at Twycross Zoo went into emergency mode and ushered visitors into indoor areas after the primate swung out of his cage.
It happened at about 2.20pm at the Leicestershire zoo, when it was full of families enjoying a day out during the school holidays.
One woman told BirminghamLive how there was mass panic amongst visitors when news of the escaped animal broke.
She said: "People were running and keepers were ushering people into sheds and rooms and holding the doors closed.
"They locked everyone in the soft play building too.
"There were lots of crying children and frantic parents. Someone in our section had a panic attack.
"Staff weren’t saying anything really, but did keep everyone locked in and safe."
She said the gibbon was recaptured after about 15 to 20 minutes and all the visitors were released from their places of safety.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said an investigation should be carried out.
"How on earth it escaped, I will never know," she said.
"This should never have happened."
Another woman, Rhiannon Clapperton, who was there, said on Twitter that they were evacuated to a cafe during the drama.
She tweeted: "All of the staff looking after us in the cafe area by gibbons were fab."
Twycross has three different types of gibbon - all of them are endangered. They are: the pileated gibbon, the agile gibbon and the northern white-cheeked gibbon.
Twycross Zoo said the incident was dealt with swiftly.
Karen Clarke, its chief operating officer, said yesterday: "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.
"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.”
