- Title: JAPAN: Monkey eludes net-wielding police at a Tokyo train station
- Date: 22nd August 2008
- Summary: (L!3) TOKYO, JAPAN (AUGUST 20, 2008) (REUTERS) POLICE, UNABLE TO CAPTURE THE MONKEY, PUTTING AWAY THE NET STATION WORKER CHIHIRO SUZUKI BEING SURROUNDED BY THE PRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) CHIHIRO SUZUKI, 26 YEAR-OLD STATION WORKER WHO WITNESSED THE MONKEY, SAYING: "I don't know how the monkey got here, but I saw the monkey hopping around instead of crawling on the ground." PEOPLE GOING THROUGH STATION TICKET GATES (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) NORIHIRO MASUI, SPOKESPERSON FOR RAIL WAY OPERATOR TOKYO CORP., SAYING: "The monkey was relatively calm staring at his surroundings. A lot of people were taking pictures, but the monkey didn't get excited. When the police tried to capture it, the monkey stood up, but it was sitting down calmly until then." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING BY AND GOING THROUGH TICKET GATES AT SHIBUYA STATION
- Embargoed: 6th September 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Environment / Natural World,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVADGB3TRCT0AOF5WUMDVXDH0RCZ
- Story Text: A rogue monkey holed up at a Tokyo train station for more than two hours on Wednesday (August 20) before giving dozens of net-wielding police officers the slip among crowds of excited children and screaming passersby.
"I don't know how the monkey got here, but I saw the monkey hopping around instead of crawling on the ground," said 26 year-old station worker Chihiro Suzuki, who witnessed the monkey.
The monkey was spotted hopping around by the automatic ticket gates at a train line in Shibuya Station in central Tokyo at about 9:40 a.m. (0040 GMT).
It then ran downstairs to the entrance to another line, climbed up and down a pillar and ran around the ticketing machines before taking refuge on top of a train information board for two hours, a spokeswoman for railway operator Tokyu Corp said.
"The monkey was relatively calm staring at his surroundings. A lot of people were taking pictures, but the monkey didn't get excited," said Norihiro Masui, spokesman for the rail operator.
"When the police tried to capture it, the monkey stood up, but it was sitting down calmly until then," he added.
Television footage showed the 60-cm-tall brown monkey sitting calmly on top of the board, blinking and looking down at the crowd as it was surrounded by police and press.
Around 30 police officers and other officials cleared the area and surrounded the animal with green netting, but at noon it jumped off the information board and escaped through the crowd and into the bustle and hustle of Tokyo.
Japanese media reported that a monkey, presumably the same one, had been witnessed in several locations in the city suburbs over the past week and may have travelled in from the mountains several more kilometers away where Japanese monkeys roam wild. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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