Famous chimpanzee rips baby from mum's arms and 'butchers her with tools'

An angry mob have ransacked a zoo after a famous local chimpanzee ripped a baby from a mum's arms and killed her.

The child's distraught mother, Seny Zogba, claims she was working in a field of cassava fruit in Guinea, West Africa when the chimp approached her from behind, bit her, and dragged her child into the forest. The body of her eight-month-old baby, named as Yoh Hélène, was later found around two miles from the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve.

The attack has been blamed on Jeje, a mature Western chimpanzee who belongs to a small troop in the area known for their impressive human-like use of tools. It is feared he could have used tools to mutilate the baby.

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Ape expert Gen Yamakoshi told The Times that the shock killing was not a surprise, as chimps in the area 'no longer fear humans'. After word of the death spread, an enraged crowd stormed the Guinea Chimpanzee Centre while carrying the baby's body, and began vandalising and setting fire to equipment.

Drones, computers, and over 200 documents were destroyed, according to local media reported. One of the protesters, Joseph Doré, said "the way she was killed" had "angered the population", while another local youth leader, Moussa Koya, said he understood it was not the "will" of the chimpanzees to act violently but that it had become a "habit". Six chimpanzee attacks on humans have been recorded in the nature reserve so far this year.

Local ecologist Alidjiou Sylla suggested that chimpanzees had been forced to venture outside of a protected area of the forest due to a lack of food, causing them to come into contact with humans more often. But expert Mr Yamakoshi said it was unclear whether the attacks had come because of food shortages or excitement on the part of the apes, and said: "It is similar behaviour to how chimps treat one another. If they are excited they cannot control their behaviour."

Only seven chimpanzees are left in the Bossou forest, which is part of the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve. Their habitat is only a short distance from subsistence farming communities of the Nzerekore Region.