Scores of chimpanzees broke out of their enclosures Sunday, mauled a Sierra Leonean driver to death and seriously injured two U.S. visitors in what Banya described as the first incident of its kind at Sierra Leone's popular Tacugama Chimp Sanctuary, which was set up 10 years ago.
The primates "are not wild but their behavior was highly unusual," said Banya.
"These chimps have all been rescued from different people who had kept them as pets and they are not afraid of humans."
Initial investigations showed that when the sanctuary workers realized the chimpanzees were loose they went to the forest to try to recapture them, leaving the zoo unattended.
In the meantime the three visitors arrived unannounced with no guide.
"The loose chimps were possibly panicked in the confusion that followed and attacked the three visitors," he speculated.
"This is the first time this has happened in the 10 years that the sanctuary has been operating," he said.
The Sierra Leonean driver who worked for the U.S. embassy in Freetown was buried Monday while the two Americans were admitted to a privately run hospital in the capital.
