CHESTER Zoo’s orangutan house has been temporarily closed to the public after an animal escaped into the keeper’s area.
"Indah" a female Sumatran got out of her enclosure in the new Monsoon building of the £40m Island attraction at the weekend.
Several people were escorted away as staff ushered the eight-year old back to her home.
A spokesman for the zoo said: “At 2.30pm, on Sunday, young female Sumatran orangutan Indah made her way into a keeper area.
“Keepers were on hand to safely usher her back inside her usual habitat just over five minutes later.
“A small number of visitors were briefly escorted out of the area as a precaution.”
Last year, four orangutans escaped from the same enclosure while the Duke of Westminster visited the zoo.
The orangutan house is now closed to the public for “a short time” to allow external contractors to assess what happened.
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