Animals v 3 lions fans

ENGLAND football fans have terrorised people around the globe with their bad behaviour for decades.

Now they are posing a new threat – this time to lions, gorillas and other animals at London Zoo.

Bosses at the tourist attraction have launched a protest amid fears animals will become stressed and frightened at the noise created by thousands of rowdy England fans yards away from their cages, a report showed yesterday.

Zoo director general Ralph Armond is anxious at proposals which would see up to 20,000 fans descend on Regent's Park this summer to view live World Cup matches relayed on to giant screens just yards away from the animals.

In a letter of objection to Camden Council, Armond said he fears for the welfare of the animals and believes drunken football fans might even break into the zoo to "see how close they can get to the lions".

He is the latest high-profile figure to be added to the list of names including Dame Judi Dench, who are all objecting to the controversial plan brought by the Greater London Council on behalf of the world football body Fifa.

Armond said: "The scale of this event is way beyond anything we have experienced before and its location could not be closer to the Zoo, literally metres away from the penguins, macaws, anteaters, lions, squirrel monkeys and the Blackburn Bird Pavilion.

"We think this corner of Regent's Park is a wholly inappropriate location for the Fan Fest and we cannot believe there is not another location either in Regents' Park or elsewhere in London that does not have this serious animal welfare impact."