December 15, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - An adult gibbon escaped from its enclosure in Malaysia and attacked two children, including a three-year-old boy who was seriously injured, a senior zoo official said Thursday.
Ahmad Azhar Mohammed, southern Malacca state zoo director told AFP that the 15 kilogram (33 pounds) male siamang, a type of gibbon, ripped off the flesh of Muhammad Afiq Haziq's right thigh during Tuesday's incident.
"The boy and the family have been traumatised by the incident. The boy is in stable condition. He suffered a tendon tear and it may take time to heal naturally.
"Afiq underwent a surgery. Doctors say the boy could go home tomorrow," he added.
Relating the incident, the boy's mother Anita Sulaiman said she heard people screaming and "when I looked back, I saw my husband grappling with the gibbon."
"A visitor came to his aid and hit the gibbon, forcing it to release the child. He lost a lot of blood," she was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.
The siamang had earlier biten a five-year-old visitor on her right ankle who also received medical treatment.
Ahmad said the zoo has a pair of siamang kept on a man-made island which was surrounded by a water-filled pond.
Zoo officials subsequently caught the gibbon and have quarantined the animal.
Ahmad said the siamang, a tailless, arboreal, black-furred gibbon native to the forests of Malaysia, was obtained by the zoo when it was a baby.
The zoo was investigating how the siamang jumped out of its enclosure, he said, adding that the animal could have been provoked by the visiors.
The incident comes just a week after a wild pygmy elephant gored an Australian woman to death in a remote wildlife park on Malaysia's Borneo island.
