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Tiger escapes enclosure at Oklahoma City Zoo

John Bacon
USA TODAY
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The Oklahoma City Zoo issued a "code red" and sheltered some visitors in zoo buildings after a tiger escaped its main enclosure Thursday but was contained by another fence, local media outlets reported.

Zoo spokeswoman Tara Henson told NewsOK.com the female Sumatran Tiger never entered an area accessible to the public. No injuries were reported.

The 4-year-old tiger was tranquilized and was doing well, Henson said.

She told the website a "code red" was issued when the tiger was reported missing. Some visitors were sheltered in the zoo's buildings, she said.

"They have us contained at the OKC zoo in a tiny gift shop...this is intense," Devin Dobson tweeted.

Henson told the website it was not immediately clear how the tiger escaped. KOCO-TV said there was a hole in the fencing enclosure.

In a statement, the zoo said the tiger was spotted about 1:40 p.m. CT (2:40 p.m. ET) in an enclosed space between two exhibits of the Cat Forest habitat and was immobilized just after 2 p.m. KOCO reported the tiger attacked another large cat, but the zoo made no mention of any attack or whether another animal was injured.

The zoo said normal operations resumed at 2:25 p.m.

The accrediting organization Association of Zoos and Aquariums said it would request a report on the incident.

"We were very glad to see everything resolved without incident to zoo personal or the tiger," said AZA spokesman Rob Vernon.

In 2008, Sumatran tigers, which are native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, were declared critically endangered, two levels below extinction. At the time, only 441 to 679 remained and were continuing to decline, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Contributing: Michael Winter

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