By Deutsche Welle
Nov 18, 2024, 10:54 AM EST
Police officers in a city in central Thailand had to barricade themselves in their own police station over the weekend in the face of a menacing mob of 200 escaped monkeys.
The inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered the consequences of a growing and aggressive population of monkeysand authorities have built special enclosures to contain groups of unruly animals.
However, on Saturday, around 200 primates escaped and stormed the city, with a group surrounding the local police station.
“We had to close the doors and windows to prevent them from entering the building in search of food“Police captain Somchai Seedee told AFP on Monday.
Traffic police and duty officers were called in to repel visitors, Lopburi police reported on Facebook on Sunday.
Around a dozen intruders remained defiantly on the roof of the police station on Monday, according to photographs from local media.
On the streets, police and local authorities are busy corralling the monkeys, trying to keep them away from residential areas.
Although Thailand is a largely Buddhist nation, it has long assimilated the Hindu traditions of its pre-Buddhist era.
Therefore, Monkeys hold a special place in the hearts of Thais thanks to the heroic Hindu monkey god Hanumanwho helped Rama rescue his beloved wife Sita from the clutches of an evil demon king.
Territorial domain of macaques
Thousands of these fearless primates dominate the streets surrounding the Pra Prang Sam Yod temple in the center of Lopburi.
Since the late 1980s, the city has offered an annual fruit feast to its macaque population..
But their growing number, the vandalism and the mass fights they engage in have made the difficult coexistence with humans almost intolerable.
Authorities in Lopburi have attempted to quell human-macaque clashes with sterilization and rehoming programs.
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