Hong Kong is on the watch out for a group of escaped crocodiles and alligators that broke out of a theme park in southern China during a typhoon, a news report said Sunday.
Up to 200 reptiles ranging from 2-metre Chinese alligators to saltwater crocodiles that can grow up to 6 metres reportedly escaped when Typhoon Hagiput lashed the theme park a fortnight ago, reported dpa.
Crocodile Island administrators in Zhuhai, southern China, later denied initial reports that so many escaped and claimed they had captured all escaped animals but Hong Kong officials remain on alert, the Sunday Morning Post reported.
Hong Kong is 48 kilometres across the mouth of the Pearl River Delta from Zhuhai and a spokesman for the Hong Kong government told the newspaper it was "still trying to find out the latest" news on the reptiles.
A small saltwater crocodile believed to have escaped across the border from China made headlines in Hong Kong in 2003 when it evaded attempts to capture it for months.