18 tigers and 17 lions shot dead by police after farm owner Terry Thompson released animals before shooting himself dead

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Police on Wednesday killed 48 wild animals – including 18 tigers and 17 lions – after their owner freed dozens of exotic animals from his Ohio game preserve and then killed himself.

Officers with assault rifles stalked the animals overnight through woods in Muskingum county in rural central Ohio, and were still searching for a wolf and a monkey on Wednesday afternoon. Area residents were told to stay indoors.

"This was a very, very bad situation," County sheriff Matt Lutz told a news conference. "These animals were on the move, and they were showing aggressive behaviour."

Photograph: Tony Dejak/AP

Animal bodies were seen scattered near a barn on the game preserve, and they were later buried there. Lutz said that it appeared Muskingum County Animal Farm owner Terry Thompson opened the farm's cages and gates and shot himself.

The preserve also had cheetahs, wolves, giraffes, camels and grizzly bears, among others.

"It's like Noah's ark, like, wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," said Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo. "Noah's ark filled with tigers and lions and leopards and a few monkeys and whatever, and it crashes here and all of a sudden they're out there."

Also among the dead were 18 Bengal tigers, two grizzly bears and 17 lions.

Hanna stressed the danger of letting them roam.

"If you had 18 Bengal tigers running around, you folks wouldn't want to see what would happen," Hanna added.

Six surviving animals, including a grizzly bear, were taken to the Columbus Zoo.

Photograph: Heather Ellers and Dustin Burton/AP

Amid the confusion, there were multiple sightings of exotic animals up to about 10 miles (16km) away. "Some sort of cat" was hit and wounded on a local highway, Lutz said.

The sheriff defended the shootings, saying police had just an hour or so before it got dark on Tuesday, and that they were not carrying tranquiliser darts.

Police found several aggressive animals near Thompson's body and shot them, and they saw many other animals standing outside their cages or outside the fencing surrounding the property and began shooting them on sight.

Even when one 300lb (135kg) animal was shot with a tranquiliser dart when animal authorities arrived, the animal "went crazy," ran off, and had to be shot, Lutz said.

Hanna defended the sheriff against criticism that the animals should have been captured alive.

"What was he to do at night time with tigers, lions and leopards, going out there?" Hanna said. "In the wild, this would be a different situation."

Authorities would not say how Thompson killed himself, and no suicide note was found. Lutz said the sheriff's office had received numerous complaints since 2004 about animals at the property. Thompson had gotten out of federal prison just last month after serving a year for possessing unregistered guns.

Lutz told CNN that he had feared finding Thompson dead at his farm from an animal attack.

Ohio has some of the United States' weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.

Danielle White, whose father's property abuts the animal preserve, said Thompson had been in trouble because of repeated animal escapes. A few weeks ago she said she had to avoid some camels grazing on the side of a freeway.

"It's always been a fear of mine knowing [Thompson] had all those animals," she said. "I have kids. I've heard a male lion roar all night."

John Ellenberger, another neighbour, speculated that Thompson freed the animals to get back at neighbours and police.

"Nobody much cared for him," Ellenberger said.