43 monkeys on the loose after escaping from a US research laboratory

Police are searching for 43 monkeys that escaped from a research facility in South Carolina after a zookeeper left their enclosure open.

The escaped rhesus macaques escaped from Alpha Genesis, a company that breeds primates for medical testing and research, and are at large in a part of the state known as the Lowcountry.

Authorities urged residents to keep their doors and windows securely closed and to report any sightings immediately. According to Yemassee police, the escaped monkeys were young females, each weighing about 3.2 kg.

Police said Thursday that the company had located the “terrible” group and was “working to lure them with food.”

“Please do not attempt to approach these animals under any circumstances,” police said.

The statement added that traps had been set in the area and police were on site “using thermal imaging cameras to try to locate the animals.”

Police said the research company told them the monkeys had not yet been tested due to their size and were “too young to transmit disease.”

Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said the escape was “frustrating.”

He told CBS News, the BBC's US affiliate network, that he was “hoping for a happy ending” and that the monkeys would return to the facility on their own.

Mr Westergaard said the monkeys escaped on Wednesday after a zookeeper left a door to their outdoor enclosure open. He said they were now “hanging out in the woods.”

“It’s really like following the leader. You see one go and the others go,” Mr. Westergaard said.

“There was a group of 50 people, seven stayed behind and 43 ran out the door.”

“There are a few bits and pieces to eat in the woods, but no apples that they really like,” he said, “so we're hoping that will attract them in the next day or two.”

In conversation with the South Carolina newspaper The post office and the courierHe added that capturing the monkeys had become more difficult due to the weather and said efforts were being “hampered a little by the rain while the monkeys huddle together.”

According to The Post and Courier, this isn't the first time monkeys have escaped from the facility.

In 2016, 19 monkeys escaped before being returned about six hours later. Two years earlier, 26 primates escaped from the facility.

The town of Yemassee, 60 miles (100 km) east of Charleston, has fewer than 1,100 residents.

Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who represents South Carolina in the House of Representatives, tweeted that her office is “diligently gathering all relevant information to keep our constituents informed about the recent primate escape.”

Macaques are known to be aggressive and competitive, but Yemassee Police Chief Gregory Alexander said in a news conference Thursday that “there is virtually no danger to the public.”

Earlier this year, a Japanese macaque named Honshu escaped from a zoo in Scotland.

After more than five days at large, he was located by a drone and then shot with a tranquilizer dart before being returned to the zoo.