Over 40 monkeys escape from research lab and are on the loose in South Carolina

Cops are warning residents in rural South Carolina to shut their doors and windows after at least 43 monkeys escaped from a bio-research lab.The rhesus macaques slipped out of an Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee — which is just off I-95 in the south of the state — on Wednesday night.The company provides “primate research and development support to the scientific community,” according to its website.None of the fugitive primates been recaptured by Thursday morning.

“We want to assure the community that there is no health risk associated with these animals,” the Yemassee Police Department said.Police and Alpha Genesis personnel have “strategically” set up traps around the area and are using thermal imaging cameras to track down the monkeys.Local residents have been warned “to keep doors and windows secured to prevent these animals from entering homes,” according to police.Residents are being told not to approach the loose monkeys and instead call 911 and report the sighting.The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and state agricultural and wildlife officials are working with local cops “to manage this incident effectively and humanely,” Yemassee police said.It’s unclear how the primates managed to break out.Alpha Genesis Inc.did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.Rhesus macaques are originally from India and China and are known for their high intelligence, according National Geographic.The monkeys have a long history in human medical and scientific research — and even preceded humans in going to space.Yemassee is a small town of about 1,000 people in Beaufort and Hampton counties in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, about 50 miles northwest of Savannah, Ga....