People help a hippopotamus escape from a flooded zoo in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Sunday.(Photo: Tinatin Kiguradze, AP)
At least 12 people are reported to have died and a number of others were missing following flooding that destroyed enclosures at the zoo in Georgia's capital of Tbilisi, leaving animals including lions and tigers roaming the city.
Some of the animals that escaped — which also include bears and wolves — were captured or killed, and the search for those still on the loose continued Sunday, the news agency Civil.ge. reported.
It said that heavy rainfall started late Saturday and turned the Vere, normally a small stream, into a "raging river."
Three zoo workers were among the dead, the Associated Press reported.
An escaped hippopotamus was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun.
Irakli Garibashvili, prime minister of the former Soviet republic, said the damage caused by the flooding is substantial, and called for people to remain at home as search for the animals continued, Civil.ge. reported.
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