U.S. JANUARY 1, 2019 / 5:50 PM / UPDATED 23 MINUTES AGO

Child slips into rhino pen, touched by animal's snout

Daniel Trotta
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - A little girl entered the rhinoceros exhibit at a Florida zoo by slipping between two poles, and at least one of the massive pachyderms touched the child with its snout, officials said on Tuesday.

Both the child, a toddler about 2 years old, and her mother were taken to hospitals but it was not immediately clear whether any injuries were related to contact with the 4,500-pound (2,000-kg) animals, zoo officials said.

“According to witnesses, the child stumbled and fell between two of the poles and at this point, the snout of at least one of the rhinoceroses made contact with the child,” zoo spokesman Elliot Zirulnik said in a statement.

The snout refers to the area near the rhino’s mouth, not the horn, zoo spokeswoman Andrea Hill said.

The family was participating in a twice-daily public encounter with the rhinos, in which people pet and touch the animals with a brush at ground level. The exhibit had been functioning since 2009 without incident but has been suspended pending a review of operating procedures, Hill said.

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