IMAGINE being locked away in a cage for 30 years and injected with viruses. Now imagine you're a chimpanzee.

Life looks pretty grim, right?

But there's light at the end of this tunnel for one group of Austrian laboratory chimps.

They have just been released from their oppressive conditions and got to see the sun for the first time in their lives.

Footage shows the animals hugging each other before taking their first steps outside.

Watch the chimps react to their surroundings (note the report is in German):

Their release came after a 14-year bid to re-integrate the 38 primates back into their natural surroundings after being taken from their mums shortly after their births and brought to the research facility in Austria.

A witness said: "They hugged as if saying, 'We're finally free'. And then they laughed."

Keeper Renate Foidl said: "The chimps are incredibly happy. This is amazing, I have been waiting for this moment for so long."

The lab chimps are now at the Gut Aiderbichl Animal Sanctuary, near Salzburg in Austria.

Originally published as Lab chimps glimpse sun after 30 years