Video: Mass of Marauding Monkeys Cause Chaos in Thai City After Escaping Enclosure

By Tim Binnall

A Thai city was plunged into chaos this weekend as hundreds of monkeys escaped from their enclosure and took to the streets in search of food, causing concerned police to lock themselves inside their station. The wild incident reportedly occurred in the community of Lopburi, which has long struggled to contain its growing population of increasingly aggressive macaques. One solution to the problem has been to round up the particularly pugnacious primates and keep them in sizeable compounds where they could no longer menace the public. However, the plan backfired spectacularly on Saturday when around 200 of the captured creatures staged a successful jailbreak.

The city was soon flooded with the newly freed macaques, much to the chagrin of one police department that found itself targeted by the troublesome monkeys. Out of fear that the animals would lay waste to the inside of their station while looking for food, cops sealed the building off while calling for all officers on duty to return to headquarters in order to help fend off the creatures. Fortunately, the veritable simian invasion did not last very long as the monkeys were coaxed back to their enclosure with the one thing they had sought: snacks. By Monday, only a few of the macaques remained on the loose with authorities in hot pursuit of the pesky primates that had caused a ruckus in the city over the weekend.