“This whole situation is tragic in every possible way,” Annika Troselius, a press officer at the company owning the park told the TV4 channel. “It shouldn’t happen. We need to take full responsibility and investigate this,” she continued. 

The shootings came after five chimps escaped from their enclosure at the park, sparking a drone-assisted search effort. 

In previous reports, a press officer from the park had been quoted saying that there were not enough tranquilisers to cover all the animals, however they corrected this during Wednesday evening.

“There was a miss in communication. There’s tranquiliser in the park but it was never an alternative to use it. Chimpanzees are high-risk animals and if there is a danger to human life, the only alternative is to euthanise them, according to the risk group and experts,” Troselius said.

The fifth escaped chimpanzee was unharmed, as it returned to its enclosure of its own accord, while one of the chimpanzees which was shot is only wounded and is back in the enclosure. The three remaining chimpanzees never left the enclosure.