Desperate chimpanzee who escaped from zoo makes futile lunge for freedom in Japan

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Chimpanzee makes high-wire escape

An escaped male chimpanzee is captured by city officials after falling off an electricity pole in northern Japan.

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A male chimpanzee named Chacha escaped from a zoo in northern Japan and desperately tried to flee by climbing a power pole.

The primate had disappeared from the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai and was on the loose for nearly two hours.

Chacha the chimpanzee lunges at the zoo worker who shot him with a sedative arrow in Sendai, Japan.

Chacha the chimpanzee lunges at the zoo worker who shot him with a sedative arrow in Sendai, Japan. Photo: AP

Television footage showed Chacha perched on the pole and wires, agitated and screaming at zoo workers below.

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A man in a cherry picker shot him in the back with a sedative arrow.

He lunged at the man, then tried to escape by running along the power line.

Chacha holds grimly onto a power pole after being hit by a sedative arrow in Sendai.

Chacha holds grimly onto a power pole after being hit by a sedative arrow in Sendai. Photo: Kyodo News via AP

He finally fell head down into a blanket held by a dozen workers on the ground.

Zoo officials said he was unhurt but recovering from the sedation.

The zoo is investigating how he escaped.

Sendai is hosting finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations next month.

AP, New York Times, Fairfax Media