Zoo animals loose in streets after deadly floods hit Georgian capital
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Floods in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, killed at least 12 people and damaged the city's zoo, causing some animals to escape. (Reuters)
TBILISI, Georgia — Escaped lions, bears and a hippopotamus from the Tbilisi Zoo were roaming the streets of the Georgian capital Sunday, after flooding killed at least 10 people.
Georgian leaders asked residents to stay inside as they sought to track down the escaped animals, which were adding a chaotic element to an already painful human situation. The hippopotamus swam out of its enclosure and onto the central Heroes’ Square, eating leaves off a tree before being shot with a tranquilizer dart in front of a Swatch store.
The animals on the loose created an unpredictable backdrop for rescue efforts. Rescuers used rafts and inflatable boats to reach people trapped by flooding. At least one lion and one bear were shot and killed by police officers, and a hyena chased a security guard across part of a university campus before it, too, was shot dead.
Officials said the flooding in the Georgian capital was the worst natural disaster in recent memory.
Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania said on national television that 10 people had been confirmed dead so far and more were missing. Many of the zoo’s animals also perished or were missing.
“The situation is rather difficult,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said. “We haven’t seen anything like this in Tbilisi before.”
About 1.1 million people live in the Georgian capital.
Among the dead was one zoo worker, Guliko Chitadze, who had an arm amputated two weeks ago after a tiger mauled it. She had returned to work just a few days ago. Her husband, also a zoo worker, was also killed, zoo spokeswoman Mzia Sharashidze said. The workers had spent the night on zoo premises to feed newborn animals.
Sharashidze said bears, lions, tigers, jaguars and wolves were among the animals that escaped.
“I can’t imagine this tragedy,” she said. “Almost the whole zoo is underwater.”
Torrential rains late Saturday and early Sunday poured down on Tbilisi, a hilly city that is along a river valley. The Tbilisi Zoo lies along the banks of the Vere River, which overflowed and caught the animals in their pens and cages.
Helicopters were flying over Tbilisi on Sunday, and a rescue effort could be seen underway at the zoo, where debris and mud had overwhelmed many of the enclosures. Other parts of the zoo still were underwater.
Sharashidze said tigers, hyenas and eight lions had disappeared, among many other animals. Six of 17 penguins were saved; the rest washed away. One crocodile was captured, and zoo workers were trying to reach another as of mid-afternoon Sunday.
Sharashidze said there had been a plan several years ago to move the zoo to an expanded location on the Tbilisi Sea, an artificial reservoir. But that plan was abandoned for financial reasons, she said.
Authorities here appeared ill-equipped to handle the unusual situation.
At the Tbilisi State University, which is on a hill above the zoo, a hyena was fatally shot next to a small guardhouse. Guards said that the hyena had chased one guard across a park on Sunday morning. The guard locked himself in the shed and called the police.
Police killed the animal because they had no tranquilizer darts, the guards said.
The hyena was splayed on the ground, with foam coming out of its mouth. Flies buzzed on its face. Guards warned visitors to leave quickly because they feared more animals were on the loose.
The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church on Sunday blamed the disaster at zoo on Georgia’s former communist rulers, according to the Interfax news agency.
“When communists came to us in this country, they ordered that all crosses and bells of the churches be melted down and the money used to build the zoo,” Patriarch Ilia II said at a sermon. “The sin will not go without punishment.”
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Michael Birnbaum is The Post’s Moscow bureau chief. He previously served as the Berlin correspondent and an education reporter.
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