The bear was killed after it escaped from its enclosure from a zoo in the northern German town of Osnabrueck (AP)

A bear has been killed after it escaped from its enclosure at a zoo in the northern German town of Osnabruck.

The bear was shot by zoo personnel and all visitors were temporarily evacuated on Saturday, said the German news agency dpa reported.

The head of the zoo, Andreas Busemann, said: "We reacted immediately with our team, and in order to protect the visitors, we had to shoot him."

Mr Busemann said the bear, called Taps, was one of the zoo's attractions, a so-called cappuccino bear - with a polar bear and a brown bear as parents.

He said it wasn't clear how the animal had managed to escape from the compound, but police were investigating.

AP