CHIMPANZEE AT LARGE

Evening Star, Issue 22955, 12 May 1938, Page 5

CHIMPANZEE AT LARGE

SIX PERSONS INJURED FIGHT IN PLAYGROUND OF SCHOOL Mickey, the chimpanzee of Liverpool Zoo at Aigburth, Liverpool, recently made his fourth and final bid for freedom, and as_ a result six people, including three children, were injured and Mickey was shot. He was hunted by police and keepers armed with revolvers and rifles after an exciting chase, in which hundreds of people joined. Mickey broke an iron bar over an inch in diameter in his cage, and then, throwing his body against the door of the house of Mr Wardle, manager of the Zoo, smashed it. Entering the house, he went to a room where Mr Wardle’s wife was and pushed her over. She followed him out of the house to prevent him.straying from the grounds, but she was pushed on to the lawn, receiving a sprained ankle and a cut on the neck. Mi- Wardle was also hurt in trying to restrain the animal. Armed keepers followed Mickey, and a shot was taken at him before he got out of the park, but though wounded he made his way to Sudley Road Council School, where 50 boys were in the playground doing physical drill under the supervision of Mr A. R. Gall. Afterwards Mr Gall said: The children could not have been positioned worse for what happened. Had they been in lino I should have been able to get them away to safety, but they were in knots of a dozen, all doing different exercises in different parts of the ground. Hearing a yell, 1 turned round to see Mickey making for one of the boys. I ran towards them with the' idea of shielding the boy. At the same time I shouted to all the boys to go inside. About half of them had already started to run into the school through the gate, but they could not all get through at once, and some of them started running in other directions. Meantime the ape had seized a boy by the Ankle. I had had a little “do ” with Mickey during one of his previous ' escapes, and I knew his strength. Last, time he did not go for me, and I did hot think he would this time, but he attached me as soon as he saw me coming. ‘ I know very little of what followed. I must have been picked up and thrown about, to judge from the scratches on my shoes and my torn clothes. I lost consciousness, and when 1 came to a little later I was lying on the asphalt, and heard someone shouting to me to run indoors. The chimpanzee was still only a few yards away from me. I picked myself up and made for the gate, slamming it behind me, and got indoors safely. By this time Midkey had made his way to Lugard road, adjoining the school, and climbed on to a roof. Police officers joined Mr Wardle and the keepers, and it was decided to kill the chimpanzee in order to prevent further injury. Thirteen shots were fired into the animal before he fell into a back yard. He was finally despatched by a shot from a service rifle. Noel Davenport, the injured hoy, was taken to hospital by ambulance, and the other children are thought to have been hurt in the rush for safety. Mickey, who weighed 13st and was 14 years of age, had made several bids for freedom. In May last ho broke out for three hours, , during which he knocked down a lion tamer at the Zoo, bit a circus master, knocked down another man, climbed a tree and watched children coming home from school, entered a school and pawed at a teacher, threw a coal cart driver and his shovel across the road, kissed a woman who greeted him by his name, started to paint some railings in Lugard road, wrenched batons from the hands of policemen sent to capture him, jumped out of the way of a police motor cycle, and finally succumbed l to the temptation of an orange held out by a woman.