Klamos, East Bohemia, July 16 (CTK) – Two tigers and a lion escaped from their cages in the private Stit Biopark near Klamos village before this morning, but they stayed in the fenced complex and vets tranquillised them at once a few hours later, regional police spokeswoman Iva Kormosova has told CTK.
No one was injured, she added.
The police sent eight patrols and a helicopter to the spot and police officers armed with sub-machine guns protected the entrance to the park. However, none of them had to interfere.
The village inhabitants were advised not to leave their homes.
The park is closed to the public on Monday as always on Monday. The opening hours in the summer are from Tuesday till Sunday.
The animals were calmly lying under a pine tree in the park, while all employees were kept inside the building, biopark co-owner Jitka Brusova said.
The adult animals escaped from a cage before 10:00. Three vets succeeded in tranquillising them at once using special sleeping shots at around 12:30.
The animals were prepared in transport cages to be driven out of the park. They probably loosened a security handle on the cage, said Kormosova. She did not confirm the previous information by Brusova about the cage bars being broken.
The tigers and lion will now return to their cages.
The police will not investigate the circumstances of their escape, Kormosova added.
Last May, a lion injured a 39-year-old man who was trying to take a picture of the animal and shoved his hand with a camera through the cage bars in the park. A three-year-old lion attacked the man.
According to its website, the Stit Biopark is a private facility with the aim to breed exotic animal species threatened with extinction and domestic animals. It was founded in Stit, part of the Klamos village with some 400 inhabitants near Chlumec nad Cidlinou, in 2014.
The biopark is breeding lions, tigers, leopards, pumas, lemurs, macaques, various bird species as well as turtles, horses, poultry and goats.
Most recently, a puma escaped from a zoopark in Zvole near Prague on June 28 and the locals were recommended not to go out. It was caught three days later. A puma ran away from this zoo last July as well.
