3 rhinos escape out of safari park in Israel

The rhinos make a run for it after seeing their chance with the security guard sneaking in a nap

This video footage shows the moment a young female rhinoceros named Rihanna led two pals on an escape bid from a safari park after spotting the security guard had fallen asleep.

The footage shows the rhinos escaping from the front entrance of the Ramat Gan Safari Park in the city of Ramat Gan in the Tel Aviv district of western Israel after a security guard nodded off to sleep and failed to notice until too late what was happening.

Although another employee of the park gave chase, it was too late to stop the white rhinos from hitting the road.

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An enquiry is now ongoing to find out why the gate to their enclosure and the gate to the facility itself had been left open.

Police who got a call to say that three rhinos were on the loose said that they initially doubted it, but when they realised it was true they had stopped the animals' further escape with a roadblock.

They then worked with zoo staff to stop the three rhinos travelling too far, and to drive them back to the safari park.

A police spokesman said: 'We located the rhinos in the car park not far from the safari park itself.'

All three white rhinos including Rihanna as well as the other two females named Keren Peles and Karnivala were returned to the park after their brief adventure without further incident.

Zoo spokeswoman Sagit Horowitz said: 'Overall, the rhinos were outside about 10 minutes, in which they were in the parking lot adjacent to the entrance and did not enter the national park.'

The security guard that was supposed to stop the rhinos has reportedly been relieved of his duties.