Tokyo: photos & YouTube video of wild monkey that escaped police

Commuters in Tokyo were delayed more than two hours Wednesday when a wild monkey appeared inside Tokyo’s Shibuya train station — eluding police, according to the Associated Press. The report also said that there have been other monkey sightings lately in Tokyo, but it’s unclear whether it’s the same monkey that appeared in the train station. [Click on the above picture for a KTLA video of police chasing the monkey]

The monkey on a train departure board in Shibuya Station

Police continue the search outside a Tokyo train station.

The blog Pink Tentacle points to a TBS news video that calls the search efforts “Operation Capture Monkey.” So far, a monkey was spotted in Omotesando 1km from Shibuya Station.

Monkey videos | There are a bunch of videos of the Tokyo monkey being chased by police on YouTube as well as a string of news video on Japan Probe.

Of course, the monkey may have been inspired by Indonesian boys in Central Java who earlier this week dressed as monkeys as part of an elaborate Culture Carnival 2008 to celebrate Indonesian Independence Day.

– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger, and Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Video: KTLA; Photos: Tokyu Corp. via Kyodo News / Associated Press, top; Kyodo News / Associated Press, middle; Achmad Ibrahim / Associated Press, above]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 2:23 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Asia, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.