A truck hauling monkeys feared to be carrying hepatitis C, herpes and Covid-19 has overturned in Mississippi.

The vehicle was hauling 21 rhesus macaques from Tulane University in New Orleans to a Florida test site when it crashed on Interstate 59.

Each of the 18kg monkeys are ‘aggressive’ to humans.

Photographs from the scene show the truck slanted and half-collapsed in the grass at around the 117-mile mark, north of Heidelberg. A monkey can be seen poking from between the mangled doors, perched on a wooden cage.

Sheriff Randy Johnson told local news outlet WAPT that six monkeys were on the loose, before sheriff’s later said that all but one of the escaped monkeys have been ‘destroyed’.

‘The monkey that got away actually crossed interstate, went out into a wooded area,’ added Johnson.

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