Yakushima macaques are seen in this file photo taken in Yakushima, Kagoshima Prefecture, on May 17, 2018. (Mainichi/Takeshi Noda)

The entrance to Okinawa Zoo & Museum is pictured in the city of Okinawa on June 27, 2019. (Mainichi/Masanori Hirakawa)

Fourteen Yakushima macaques were found to have escaped from their enclosure at Okinawa Zoo & Museum in the city of Okinawa on June 27, zoo officials said.

A worker at the zoo in Japan's southernmost prefecture noticed at about 10:05 a.m. on June 27 that all of the facility's Yakushima macaques, a subspecies of the Japanese macaque, or snow monkey, were missing from the monkey house.

The zoo said two of the macaques had been recaptured by around 11:40 a.m. and it is continuing to try to snare the remaining ones.

The zoo has temporarily closed while workers search for the monkeys.

(Japanese original by Kenta Somatani, Kyushu News Department)