Summary Lopburi Mayor Chamroen Salacheep directed local police and relevant agencies to capture the escaped monkeys as quickly as possible
(Web Desk) - Authorities in Thailand are searching for nearly 100 monkeys that escaped from an animal enclosure in the central city of Lopburi, officials said.
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning, when the monkeys managed to flee from the Lopburi Municipality Animal Nursery. Staff members were able to prevent more than 1,000 other monkeys from escaping the facility.
Following the incident, Lopburi Mayor Chamroen Salacheep directed local police and relevant agencies to capture the escaped monkeys as quickly as possible to prevent them from causing damage to homes, businesses, or public property.
Lopburi is internationally known for its annual Monkey Buffet Festival, a popular tourist attraction celebrating the city's large monkey population. For many years, long-tailed macaques roamed freely through the city's streets and historic sites.
However, in 2024, Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation launched a large-scale operation to relocate approximately 2,500 monkeys into specially designed enclosures.
The relocation followed a rise in aggressive behavior by the monkeys, which increasingly entered residential and commercial areas in search of food, leading to a growing number of conflicts with local residents.
