Setting Free the 'Roos

Kangaroos Set Loose in France

TOULOUSE, France (AFP) – Vandals set loose 15 kangaroos from an Australian theme park in southern France, sparking a major search operation, with three marsupials still on the loose.

"When we arrived on Saturday morning, five pens had been broken open, their padlocks were smashed and the perimeter fence was torn in several places," said Carole Masson, owner of the nature reserve in southwestern Carcassonne.

"We had 15 missing kangaroos -- it was complete panic," she told AFP.

Firefighters, police and gendarmes were mobilised to track down the animals as they bounded through the woods.

Someone must have been reading John Irving.