Chimps escape from their enclosure at Chester Zoo

Jul 8 2009 by John Siddle, Birkenhead News

Many zoo visitors queued for refunds following the evacuation. Staff handed out bottles of water to those stuck in traffic and waiting for buses.

One group from Warrington said: "The communication was appalling.

"They didn't tell us anything.

"We had just walked through the front gates and they told us to go into the shop. We heard someone saying it was a red alert.

"We walked straight through the gate and into the gift shop. It was ridiculous."

Zoo staff faced a tough challenge to regroup the chimpanzees, considered the most intelligent non-human primate, but managed to have them all back in the enclosure within four hours.

No visitors or staff were injured.

Chester Zoo spokesman PR and media manager Rachael Ashton said: "We don’t know how they managed to get there and in the time I have been here I’ve never known it to happen.

"None have got into the public domain but because they are primates we closed the park as a precaution.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused to our visitors and would thank them for their full co-operation and patience."

The zoo, home to 7,000 animals and 400 different species, many endangered, was expected to reopened this week.

Around 1.4m guests will visit the zoo during the course of the year, making it one of the UK’s most popular tourist attractions.