Escaped chimpanzee climbs lamppost in rampage around city streets caught on video

The chimpanzee screamed at zoo workers and bared its teeth before falling to the ground

A chimpanzee frightened residents when it escaped a zoo in Japan and climbed up an electric pole to avoid being recaptured.

Chacha the chimp was on the loose for almost two hours after it disappeared from the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai in northern Japan, the same city that is set to host G7 finance ministers next month.

Once staff noticed he was missing, they closed the zoo as a precaution, according to the Japan Times.

A local primary school also kept its 400 pupils indoors until Chacha had been captured as he was spotted roaming in a nearby residential area.

“When I saw (the chimpanzee) on television, it was quite big, so we thought it was dangerous to let the children out,” the school's Vice Principal Takashi Yamaguchi said.

Chacha then climbed up an electric pole when he was spotted by workers.

The chimpanzee, who co-habited with four other chimps in the zoo enclosure, became irritated and defensive as he perched on top of the pole, clinging to the electric wires with his feet and hands.

He screamed at zoo workers and bared his teeth. Reportedly no one was injured during the incident.

Once hit with a sedative dart in his back, Chacha dangled from the power line, before dropping to the ground onto a blanket held by around a group of workers.

It is not immediately clear if the chimpanzee survived.

Workers are investigating how he escaped from the zoo, which opened in 1965 and holds around 478 animals including elephants, lions and bears.