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Yupi the polar bear who is on the verge of being saved by Sunday Mirror readers howls in distress as her rescue is postponed – by a gang war outside her zoo.

Her plight melted your hearts last year when we revealed how she spends 17 hours a day locked in a concrete cell in Mexico where temperatures hit 35ºC.

Readers raised £20,000 to help bring Yupi to a new home in Britain. But now bloody gang violence is raging around the zoo in Morelia – and animal welfare experts due to fly out to finalise plans to get Yupi to the UK in March have had to scrap their trip for safety reasons.

Cheryl Williams, of Yorkshire Wildlife Park, said: “We’ve held off because there’s a great deal of unrest in terms of violence and crime.

“There’s been a lot of upset. It’s very disappointing because we can’t wait to bring Yupi here where she will have a much better life.” Yupi’s rescue became more urgent last month after she escaped for three hours before being darted and returned to her pen.

Cheryl said the bear’s freedom bid underlined the need to rescue her as soon as possible. “We hoped that might hurry things up,” she admitted. “But this is just another setback. It’s so sad.”

Meanwhile 10 acres of hills, lakes and Arctic flora are waiting for Yupi at the park near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

The northern climate will be a relief for the bear who has spent 21 of her 22 years as the star attraction at the sweltering zoo with just a warm chlorine filled pool to swim in.

She ended up there as a cub after hunters shot her mother in their Arctic homeland.

Her new home will allow her to swim and forage alongside other bears staff hope to rescue from around the world.