サル２００匹脱走、警官らが警察署内に立てこもる　タイ

【バンコクＡＦＰ＝時事】タイ中部で先週末、捕獲して囲いの中に入れていたサル約２００匹が逃げ出し、警官らが警察署内に立てこもる事態が起きた。（写真は資料写真）
　ロッブリではサルの群れが急激に拡大し、攻撃性も増し、住民たちが悩まされ続けてきた。当局はサルを捕獲し、囲いに収容するなどして問題に対処していた。
　しかし１６日、収容していたサル約２００匹が脱走。一部が警察署内に侵入しようとした。
　警察署長は１８日、ＡＦＰの取材に対し、「食べ物を狙って侵入しないよう、ドアや窓を閉める必要があった」と説明。警察文書など署内にあった重要な物品が破壊される恐れもあったと述べた。
　タイは仏教国だが、ヒンズー教のサル神ハヌマーン信仰により、サルが大切に扱われている。
　またロッブリでは１９８０年代後半から、宗教的伝統と観光目的で、サルに果物を与える行事を毎年開催している。しかしその結果、数千匹のサルが街中を占拠。寺院周辺の通りはサルであふれかえることとなった。
　当局は、避妊手術や他地域への移動といった策を講じて人間との衝突防止を試みている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/11/19-17:01）

Police in central Thailand said they barricaded themselves into their own station over the weekend, after a menacing mob of 200 escaped monkeys ran riot on the town.
The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population and authorities have built special enclosures to contain groups of the unruly residents.
But on Saturday around 200 of the primates broke out and rampaged through town, with one posse descending on a local police station.
We've had to make sure doors and windows are closed to prevent them from entering the building for food, police captain Somchai Seedee told AFP on Monday.
He was concerned the marauders could destroy property including police documents, he added.
Traffic cops and officers on guard duty were being called in to fend off the visitors, the Lopburi police said on Facebook on Sunday.
Around a dozen of the intruders were still perched proudly on the roof of the police station on Monday, photos from local media showed.
Down in the streets, hapless police and local authorities were working to round up rogue individuals, luring them away from residential areas with food.
While Thailand is an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, it has long assimilated Hindu traditions and lore from its pre-Buddhist era.
As a result monkeys are afforded a special place in Thai hearts thanks to the heroic Hindu monkey god Hanuman, who helped Rama rescue his beloved wife Sita from the clutches of an evil demon king.
Thousands of the fearless primates rule the streets around the Pra Prang Sam Yod temple in the centre of Lopburi.
The town has been laying on an annual feast of fruit for its population of macaques since the late 1980s, part religious tradition and part tourist attraction.
But their growing numbers, vandalism and mob fights have made an uneasy coexistence with their human neighbours almost intolerable.
Lopburi authorities have tried quelling instances of human-macaque clashes with sterilisation and relocation programs.