Washington:
The crash in Pennsylvania of a truck carrying 100 monkeys to a lab allowed four of them to escape, sparking a police search who warned the public not to approach the animals.
The vehicle collided with a dump truck near Danville, Pennsylvania, Friday afternoon, en route to a Florida lab.
Police said on Twitter that four sums of money “had fled from the scene of the accident to the surrounding area”.
Three were later captured, but one was still at large on Saturday morning.
The local WNEP news site said a police helicopter with thermal cameras was used to track down the cynomolgus monkeys, while officers on the ground used powerful flashlights.
Pennsylvania State Police have released an image of a primate perched in a tree off Route 54 during the frigid night.
A reporter said police surrounded the monkey before firing an unidentified weapon.
“Crash update: One monkey is still missing, but we ask that no one tries to find or capture the animal,” officers said on Twitter Saturday morning.
Cynomolgus monkeys — also known as long-tailed macaques — can cost up to $10,000 each, and research into the coronavirus vaccine is in high demand, according to the DailyExpertNews. In captivity they can live for 30 years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)