Pupils were locked in their classrooms and emergency authorities were called in after a baboon managed to get into the playground of a girls' school in the Jizan town of Masliya on Thursday morning. The baboon, which was reportedly known to local residents for having entered numerous private homes and causing panic with its aggressive behavior, was eventually ushered out of the school by the formidable presence of police and Civil Defense officials. The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were also on hand to oversee proceedings. Residents in the southwest of the Kingdom have noticed a recent rise in the number of baboons willing to stray into urban areas and exhibit increasingly aggressive behavior towards humans. Authorities have said that recent periods of drought and extensive road works in some areas have forced the animals out of the natural territories in search of food.
