Monkey Bites Girl on St. Petersburg Street

By The Moscow Times

Aug. 20, 2014

An 11-year-old girl was bitten by a monkey in downtown St. Petersburg, a local online news portal reported Wednesday.

Fontanka.ru said the incident occurred Tuesday by the Bronze Horseman monument to Peter the Great, which overlooks the Neva River in the historic center of the imperial capital.

The local girl was taken to a hospital, where doctors tended to her minor wrist injuries before reporting the incident to the police, the news website said.

The report did not explain how the monkey came to be in the city center or the circumstances of the biting incident.

Monkeys and other exotic animals are a common sight near tourist attractions in Russia, where their handlers charge passers-by to have their photo taken with the animals.

Earlier this month, a tourist in the resort town of Tuapse by the Black Sea underwent emergency treatment at a hospital after being bitten by a cobra while posing for a photo with the reptile. The cobra's owner was detained over the incident.

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