Scores of animals perish at flood-hit Prague Zoo

Scores of animals have died at Prague Zoo as keepers struggled to save them from flood waters.

Eighty birds and nine mammals, including an elephant, lion and gorilla either perished or were put down because they couldn't be moved to safe areas in time.

Staff at the zoo say they didn't have enough warning of the scale of the flood expected to save any more animals.

Dr Peter Fejk, the head of the zoo, said: "If I had known as early as Monday morning that the worst floods for a century were on their way we could have saved all the animals. But that information only reached us on Tuesday morning.

"Such an evacuation is an extremely complex and time consuming process."

Three female seals escaped into the River Vltava thanks to the flood waters. One came back later and another was captured in the north of the city.

A fourth seal, the only male specimen, had declined to join the break-out and stayed in its tank.