Medics respond to South African chimp attack

Responders describe ‘frenzied’ attack on man who was dragged under fence into chimp enclosure

June 30, 2012 05:32 AM

**AP Photo/Erin Conway-Smith**
A chimpanzee sits in an enclosure at the Chimp Eden rehabilitation center, near Nelspruit, South Africa. A paramedic official says chimpanzees there bit and dragged a man at the reserve, badly injuring him Thursday.

The Times

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — An American student wildlife ranger at a world-famous chimpanzee sanctuary near Nelspruit was critically injured when he was attacked by two of the animals while leading a tour group.

Reports last night said the man, who had been studying the behaviour of chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimp Eden, was fighting for his life in hospital after what paramedics described as a ''frenzied’ attack. Two of the animals reportedly dragged him under a fence and into their enclosure.

Netcare 911 spokesman Jeffrey Wicks said: “According to eyewitnesses, two chimpanzees grabbed the man by his feet and pulled him under the perimeter fence and into the enclosure.

''Paramedics arrived at the scene and entered the enclosure with armed escorts. They arrived to find the ranger in a critical condition.”

No one else was injured.

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