LONDON (AP) — Workers arriving at the London Zoo early Tuesday were surprised to discover an unexpected exhibit that suggested the animals were being set free.
A mural by elusive street artist Banksy showed a gorilla holding up the entrance gate as birds took flight and a sea lion waddled away. Three sets of eyes peered out from the darkness inside.
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People remove a new artwork by Banksy, depicting a howling wolf painted on a satellite dish that was placed on a shop roof in Peckham, south London, Thursday Aug. 8, 2024. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
Contractors begin to dismantle a billboard with the new Banksy artwork depicting a stretching cat in Cricklewood, north-west London, Saturday, August 10, 2024. (Jordan Reynolds/PA via AP)
A covered-face person removes a new artwork by Banksy, depicting a howling wolf painted on a satellite dish that was placed on a shop roof in Peckham, south London, Thursday Aug. 8, 2024. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
People take pictures of a new mural by elusive street artist Banksy at the London Zoo, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in London. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
A man takes a selfie by a new design of swimming fish by Banksy, which appeared on a police box in the City of London is cordoned off, in London, Monday Aug. 12, 2024. (Emily Pennink/PA via AP)
A new design of swimming fish by Banksy, which appeared on a police box in the City of London is cordoned off, in London, Monday Aug. 12, 2024. (Emily Pennink/PA via AP)
A man photographs a new artwork unveiled by Banksy, depicting a rhinoceros which looks as though it is climbing on top of a car, the eighth artwork in his animal-themed collection, on Westmoor Street in Charlton, south east London, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
The new artwork unveiled by Banksy at London Zoo, depicting a gorilla lifting up a shutter at the entrance allowing a number of birds to escape, while the eyes of other animals can be seen lurking in the darkness, the ninth artwork in his animal-themed collection, in London, Tuesday Aug. 13, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy is seen at the London Zoo, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in London. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
The painting may explain why Bansky-created creatures — from a mountain goat perched on a building buttress to piranhas circling a police guard post to a rhinoceros mounting a car — have been showing up in the most unlikely places around London for nine straight days.
Each of the works posted on Banksy's Instagram page have included a London Zoo hashtag, said Dan Simmonds, animal operations manager at the zoo. But he didn't imagine the artist would decorate the zoo's own doorway.
“Part of the enigma of Banksy is obviously that everything is a surprise,” Simmonds said. “We certainly didn’t expect it was actually going to happen right here, on one of our huge admission shutters. But coming in and seeing it, kind of realized that, yeah, we’re so lucky.”
Simmonds said he discovered the mural around 6:30 a.m. when he arrived to begin feeding the hungry animals. Cyclists who circle Regent's Park, where the zoo is located, every morning were already posing for selfies.
The roll-down shutter was closed all day to show off the work. It's the busy season for the zoo, but the renowned street artist quickly draws his own followers and crowds show up to view it and snap photos.
Banksy began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists.
His paintings and installations sell for millions of dollars at auction and have drawn thieves and vandals. The latest group of works is no exception and workers at the zoo shielded it later in the day with a see-through plastic covering.
The rhino that appeared Monday was tagged with graffiti. A wolf silhouette on a roof-mounted satellite dish — appearing to howl at the moon — was stolen hours after word got out about the artwork last week.
A big cat, stretching out on the back of a dilapidated billboard, was removed within hours by three men who said they had been hired to take it down for safety reasons.
The police sentry box that looked like a fish tank was removed from near the Old Bailey courthouse to the City of London corporate offices to protect it, a spokesperson said. It will eventually be placed where it can be viewed by the public.
It was not clear if the zoo mural would be the final in the series.
Simmonds said the zoo was honored Banksy had chosen it for one of his canvases. He was particularly excited to see the big ape because he had once been the gorilla keeper.
He said he's assuming the primate in the mural is an endangered western lowland gorilla, the subspecies they have at the zoo. Simmonds identified one of the birds as possibly being a macaw and another critter as a bat.
“As for the eyes, who knows, maybe some cats peering out,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it. Literally only Banksy will know.”
Associated Press journalist Hilary Fox contributed.
People remove a new artwork by Banksy, depicting a howling wolf painted on a satellite dish that was placed on a shop roof in Peckham, south London, Thursday Aug. 8, 2024. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
Contractors begin to dismantle a billboard with the new Banksy artwork depicting a stretching cat in Cricklewood, north-west London, Saturday, August 10, 2024. (Jordan Reynolds/PA via AP)
A covered-face person removes a new artwork by Banksy, depicting a howling wolf painted on a satellite dish that was placed on a shop roof in Peckham, south London, Thursday Aug. 8, 2024. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
People take pictures of a new mural by elusive street artist Banksy at the London Zoo, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in London. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
A man takes a selfie by a new design of swimming fish by Banksy, which appeared on a police box in the City of London is cordoned off, in London, Monday Aug. 12, 2024. (Emily Pennink/PA via AP)
A new design of swimming fish by Banksy, which appeared on a police box in the City of London is cordoned off, in London, Monday Aug. 12, 2024. (Emily Pennink/PA via AP)
A man photographs a new artwork unveiled by Banksy, depicting a rhinoceros which looks as though it is climbing on top of a car, the eighth artwork in his animal-themed collection, on Westmoor Street in Charlton, south east London, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
The new artwork unveiled by Banksy at London Zoo, depicting a gorilla lifting up a shutter at the entrance allowing a number of birds to escape, while the eyes of other animals can be seen lurking in the darkness, the ninth artwork in his animal-themed collection, in London, Tuesday Aug. 13, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy is seen at the London Zoo, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in London. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
BANGKOK (AP) — A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand on Friday, destroying buildings, bridges and a monastery. At least 144 people were killed in Myanmar, where photos and video from two hard-hit cities showed extensive damage. At least 10 died in the Thai capital, where a high-rise under construction collapsed.
The full extent of death, injury and destruction was not immediately clear — particularly in Myanmar, one of the world’s poorest countries. It is embroiled in a civil war, and information is tightly controlled.
“The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,” the head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said as he announced on television that at least 144 people were killed and 730 others were injured in his country.
In Thailand, Bangkok city authorities said 10 people were killed, 16 injured and 101 missing from three construction sites, including the high-rise.
The 7.7 magnitude quake struck at midday, with an epicenter near Mandalay, Myanmar ’s second-largest city. Aftershocks followed, one of them measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude.
In Mandalay, the earthquake reportedly brought down multiple buildings, including one of the city’s largest monasteries. Photos from the capital city of Naypyidaw showed rescue crews pulling victims from the rubble of multiple buildings used to house civil servants.
Myanmar's government said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas. In a country where prior governments sometimes have been slow to accept foreign aid, Min Aung Hlaing said Myanmar was ready to accept assistance. The United Nations allocated $5 million to start relief efforts.
But amid images of buckled and cracked roads and reports of a collapsed bridge and a burst dam, there were concerns about how rescuers would even reach some areas in a country already enduring a humanitarian crisis.
“We fear it may be weeks before we understand the full extent of destruction caused by this earthquake," said Mohammed Riyas, the International Rescue Committee’s Myanmar director.
Myanmar is in an active earthquake belt, though many of the temblors happen in sparsely populated areas, not cities like those affected Friday. The U.S. Geological Survey, a government science agency, estimated that the death toll could top 1,000.
Myanmar's English-language state newspaper, Global New Light of Myanmar, said five cities and towns had seen building collapses and two bridges had fallen, including one on a key highway between Mandalay. A photo on the newspaper’s website showed wreckage of a sign that read “EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT," which the caption said was part of the capital’s main 1,000-bed hospital.
Elsewhere, video posted online showed robed monks in a Mandalay street, shooting their own video of the multistory Ma Soe Yane monastery before it suddenly fell into the ground. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was harmed. Video also showed damage to the former royal palace.
Christian Aid said its partners and colleagues on the ground reported that a dam burst in the city, causing water levels to rise in the lowland areas.
Residents of Yangon, the nation's largest city, residents rushed out of their homes when the quake struck. In Naypyitaw, some homes stood partly crumbled, while rescuers heaved away bricks from the piles of debris. An injured man reclined on a wheeled stretcher, while another man fanned him in the heat.
In a country where many people already were struggling, “this disaster will have left people devastated,” said Julie Mehigan, who oversees Christian Aid’s work in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
“Even before this heartbreaking earthquake, we know conflict and displacement has left countless people in real need,” Mehigan said.
Myanmar's military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and is now involved in a bloody civil war with long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy ones.
Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are incredibly dangerous or simply impossible for aid groups to reach. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.
In Thailand, a 33-story building under construction crumpled into a cloud of dust near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market, and onlookers could be seen screaming and running in a video posted on social media. Vehicles on a nearby freeway came to a stop.
Sirens blared across the Thai capital's downtown as a rescuers streamed to the wreckage. Above them, shredded steel and broken concrete blocks, some stacked like pancakes, rose in a towering heap. Injured people were rushed away on gurneys, and hospital beds were also wheeled outside onto a sidewalk.
“It’s a great tragedy," Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said after viewing the site, adding that there was hope that there were still survivors.
The city's elevated rapid transit system and subway shut down.
While the area is prone to earthquakes, they are usually not so powerful and rarely are felt in the Thai capital. The greater metropolitan area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.
Voranoot Thirawat, a lawyer working in central Bangkok, said her first indication that something was wrong came when she saw a light swinging back and forth. Then she heard the building creaking, and she and her colleagues fled down 12 flights of stairs.
“In my lifetime, there was no earthquake like this in Bangkok,” she said.
Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, was in one of Bangkok’s many malls when the quake struck.
“All of a sudden, the whole building began to move. Immediately, there was screaming and a lot of panic,” he said. Some people fled down upward-moving escalators, he said.
Nearby, Paul Vincent, a tourist visiting from England, recalled seeing a high-rise building swaying, water falling from a rooftop pool and people crying in the streets.
The U.S. Geological Survey and Germany’s GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to preliminary reports. Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage.
To the northeast, the earthquake was felt in China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and caused damage and injuries in the city of Ruili on the border with Myanmar, according to Chinese media reports.
Videos that one outlet said were shot by a person in Ruili showed building debris littering a street and a person being wheeled in a stretcher toward an ambulance.
The shaking in Mangshi, a Chinese city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Ruili, was so strong that people couldn’t stand, one resident told The Paper, an online media outlet.
Adam Schreck, Haruka Naga, Jerry Harmer, Grant Peck and Penny Wang in Bangkok, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Edith M. Lederer and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.
Vehicles make their way near a road damaged by an earthquake Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Rescuers work at the site a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
A building is damaged after earthquake Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Rescue workers help an injured women who was trapped under a building Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Rescue workers take an injured man who was trapped under a building Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
A bridge that connects two high-rises is seen damaged after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers tend to injured from the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers work at the site a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
Rescuers work at the site a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
People take shelter outdoors after an earthquake shook nearby high-rises in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/David Cohen)
Hospital patients lay on beds outdoors after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A crane is seen damaged on the facade of an under-construction building after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
The bodies of victims of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake lie on the ground in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
A woman reacts as she watches rescuers at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
Rescuers place an injured into an ambulance, at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
A rescuer walks at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers carry an injured from the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Damaged pagodas are seen after an earthquake, Friday, March 28, 2025 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Rescuers carry an injured from the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
People seek shelter in Bangkok's Benjasiri Park after an earthquake shook nearby high-rises on Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck)
Workers at the Ikea in a nearby high-rise shopping mall and others seek shelter in Bangkok's Benjasiri Park after an earthquake on Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck)
People who evacuated from buildings following earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chutima Lalit)
Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Children walk near a damaged monastery compound after an earthquake, Friday, March 28, 2025 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
A damaged monastery is seen after an earthquake, Friday, March 28, 2025 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Damaged pagodas are seen after an earthquake, Friday, March 28, 2025 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
A Buddhist monk walks near a damaged building at a monastery compound after an earthquake, Friday, March 28, 2025 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Damaged pagodas are seen after an earthquake, Friday, March 28, 2025 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Residents of a high-rise condo building wait outside after an earthquake in Bangkok, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Christie Hampton)
People who evacuated from buildings following earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chutima Lalit)
People who evacuated from buildings following earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chutima Lalit)
People who evacuated from buildings following earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chutima Lalit)
