Two women and four children, including two babies, were accidentally locked inside Wingham Wildlife Park after closing time on Saturday evening. The group raised the alarm by posting on a community Facebook page and were released shortly after, zoo staff have confirmed.
The family had taken the bus to the park, which lies between Canterbury and Sandwich in Kent. When they headed for the exit, they found the gates shut and the site empty.
Panic at the exit
Abbie Louise Smith, 29, said the group were “panicking” when they realised they were locked in. “We went to the exit and it was all dark at 6.06pm - we panicked as everyone was gone,” she said. “All the kids were crying and screaming because we were stuck. We were shaking the doors trying to set off the alarm, we tried everything.”
Abbie posted a public plea on the Canterbury Residents’ Group, which has 119,000 members, asking if anyone had a contact number for someone at the park. “We’re stuck in the zoo,” she wrote. “Two kids and two babies. Please can someone help?”
Rescue and response
Another woman, Emma Dechaine Mckee, asked at 6.55pm if anyone was friends with park staff, saying they were “stuck inside”. At about 8pm, she commented below the post: “We are all out. Thank you, everyone, for your help. From me, my friend and our four-month-, nine-month-, six-year- and nine-year-old children, we really appreciate it. Thank you, everyone.”
Park curator Markus Wilder said the family were missed during a final sweep of the site, including a check of the car park, where no vehicles remained because the group had arrived by bus. He explained that CCTV showed the family had moved out of sight as maintenance staff closed the tiger house and went past the lion habitat at 6.05pm.
“Usually between these two checks, we are able to find everyone who is in the park, although the management team also do a final maintenance sweep of the park at about 7pm, so they would have been found at that point anyway,” he said. “Everyone was fine and let out as soon as we were alerted between those last two checks, as we have a large management team living on site.”
The group were in the zoo for about 40 minutes before being rescued.
