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Updated at 8pm
TIGERS, LIONS, A hippopotamus and other animals have escaped from the zoo in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi after heavy flooding destroyed their enclosures, prompting authorities to warn residents to say inside today.
At least eight people have been killed in the disaster, including three zoo workers, and 10 others are missing.
An escaped hippo was cornered in one of the city’s main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun, the zoo said. Some other animals also have been seized, but it remained unclear how many are on the loose.
Bears and wolves are also among the animals who fled from their enclosures amid the flooding from heavy rains and high winds.
There were no immediate reports that any of the other fatalities were due to animal attacks. The zoo said one of the dead was Guliko Chitadze, a zookeeper who lost an arm in an attack by a tiger last month.
Heavy rains and wind hit Tbilisi during the night, turning a normally small stream that runs through the hilly city into a surging river. The flooding also damaged dozens of houses.
City mayor David Narmania told journalists that eight people were known to have died and 10 others were missing.
Helicopters are circling the city and residents have been told to stay indoors except in an emergency.
About 1.1 million people live in the former Soviet republic’s capital.
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That second pic of the hippo though. Just having a day out in town, munching on some leaves. Magnificent b@st@rd, not giving one single fück.
More pics. to understand the power of floods http://censor.net.ua/photo_news/339990/vnezapnyyi_moschnyyi_liven_vyzval_razrushitelnoe_navodnenie_v_tbilisi_opolzni_obrusheniya_zatopleniya
Jesus those pictures! The one with the crocodile in the street below or the one with the lion roaming the street! Seriously scary!
Looks bad enough, 10 people died, only few animals from the Zoo managed to survive and the Zoo is completely destroyed. This Zoo had unique white lions cubs born in 2013 and 2014, looks like not many of them survived. Good few dogs on the pictures are ones saved from the dog shelter which was destroyed. As always in our countries a bit of religion or “some bad miracle” involved, apparently as per Patriarch of Georgia the Zoo was completely destroyed because “it was built by communists on money they earned from selling metal from melted bells taken from churches
My thoughts are with you, a magnificent city with lovely people and amazing food. Hopefully the city and the zoo recover quickly.
Thank you Jerry.
If you want to see the power of the Georgian Patriarch, just wait for Georgian Gay Pride. Scary stuff.
The animals in that zoo were already in pretty awful conditions. It wasn’t that nice looking at them when I visited! Makes you thankful for how well run Dublin Zoo is.
Jumanji!
It’s your turn to roll the dice :-)
Having visited Tblisi Zoo, I’d hazard a guess that the animals are probably better off roaming the streets than languishing in their diseased and filthy enclosures. The mass infections on the ostriches and other animals were appalling.
Great story, think I’d watch from indoors.
yep, especially if you can see a 2.5 meters crock is “parked” next to your car.
I’d be more worried about the hippo. Pushing its arse while armed only with a tree branch is not the way to heard Africa’s most lethal animal.
Like Coppers on a Saturday night
The photo of a dog carrying a puppy is not from the Tbilisi flood. It existed in April 2015 as an internet meme. Please check: http://tenermascotas.com/tag/perro-ahorita-no-joven/
The flood looks intense. My thoughs are with Tbilisi people.
The dog picture is from Kashimir in September 2014. Scroll down to the eighth photo.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/09/pictures-kashmir-copes-with-fl-2014916113549864282.html
Twitter is full of hoaxers. Making sure you are not quoting them is necessary while it’s not always easy.
Simple answer here, stop keeping these animals in zoo’s?
Sorry for the people of Georgia but delighted for all those animals who escaped! Have no time for zoos of any kind. Animals should be in their natural habitat or not at all.
I don’t think the urban streets of Tbilisi are their natural habitat either.
When watching the Emerging Ireland game from there yesterday, the sun was shining, the players had plenty of drinks breaks… the rain overnight must have been crazy.
remARKable…
Oh my
i thoughts it was odd that that the lead story on the radio was about the fact animals needed to be rescued and then meanwhile 3 zookeepers and 7 other people are dead—surely the dead people is the lead story and then the fact some animals needed to be round up—just seems backwards to me
Jurassic Georgia
Why are the locals Looing at the remains of the Zoo ? Are they looking to get in when it’s rebuilt?
Shamboosly
like half the towns in ireland of a Saturday night..no flood needed !
As that minor character in Southpark said, ‘Simpsons did it!!
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