Monkey amuses commuters at Shibuya station, gives cops the slip

[Sir Pompously]

Monkey amuses commuters at Shibuya station, gives cops the slip


The monkey sits on a train departure sign at Shibuya Station in Tokyo on Wednesday morning. (Photo courtesy of Tokyu Railway)

Police officers are searching for a monkey that popped up at a busy Shibuya railway station in Tokyo on Wednesday morning and fled toward Harajuku.

A security guard spotted the monkey near a ticket gate of the Tokyu Toyoko Line at Shibuya Station at around 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday. A station employee alerted police, who rushed to the scene to try to catch the monkey, but it fled from the station about two hours later.

The monkey, which is about 40 centimeters tall and is believed to be a Japanese monkey (nihonzaru), fled toward the Harajuku district, police said.

There has recently been a spate of monkey sightings in residential areas in Tokyo, including one in Koganei on Aug. 12 and another in Setagaya-ku on Monday, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Officials suspect that the same monkey is involved in all sightings.

According to Tokyu Railway, the monkey was roaming around on the stairs near the ticket gate and near the ticket vending machines before it climbed up and sat on a train departure sign hanging from the ceiling at the station.

There were no reported injuries to passengers or any train disruptions, but the area was crowded with curious bystanders.

"If it is a Japanese monkey, it may have been separated from a pack living in the Okutama region (in the suburbs of Tokyo)," said a representative of Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo.