MOSCOW — The Georgian capital, Tbilisi, became the city where the wild things are on Saturday night, with lions, tigers, bears and other carnivorous animals roaming the streets after catastrophic flooding destroyed the enclosures of the main zoo.
Residents were warned to stay indoors after heavy rains and roiling waters inundated the center of the city. At least three zoo workers were dead, according to local press reports, which quoted the mayor, Davit Narmania, as saying that at least eight people had been killed and that search and rescue operations were continuing for about 10 more missing.
It was not immediately clear how many animals were on the loose and how many had been killed in the floods.
Images from the city underscored the animal anarchy — one showed a group of people herding a hippopotamus along a street choked with mud, after it had been hit by a tranquilizer dart. Others showed the corpses of animals amid the debris of wrecked cars and buildings.
A special police unit was dispatched to the neighborhoods around the zoo to hunt for the roaming animals, according to Rustavi 2 television.
Some of the animals were killed when they could not be captured, the report said, including six wolves found on the grounds of a children’s hospital as well as a bear and a hyena. Some residents expressed indignation at those killings, but officials said various animals were too aggressive to be captured.
Helicopters were swooping low over the city to try to spot the animals. Those missing after the flood included 20 wolves, eight lions, and several tigers and jaguars, Interfax reported. Only three of 17 penguins survived, the Russian news agency said.
One zoo worker who died while trying to save the animals, Guliko Chitadze, a 25-year veteran of the Tbilisi Zoo, had her arm amputated in late May after she was attacked by a tiger, Interfax said.
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