There has been an outpouring of sympathy for Hellabrunn zoo in Germany after all of their meerkats died when their burrow collapsed and buried them alive.

The tragic incident took place at Hellabrunn Zoo in the German city of Munich in the southern state of Bavaria when all their meerkats were buried alive on Wednesday night (22nd September).

The zoo released a statement saying that they are “in mourning”. The statement said: “All four animals were in a self-dug sleeping burrow in the lower area of ​​the complex when the earth suddenly gave way and the popular mongoose were buried alive.”

The statement added that the heartbroken zookeepers were only able to recover their dead bodies on Thursday morning.

Zoo director Carsten Zehrer is quoted as saying: “Our four meerkats Rwanda, Quodo, Quimbele and Rafiki were caught in the unpredictable cave collapse at night and had no chance of getting out of the burrow alive.”

He added: “Even though such an accident in the natural habitat of the animals, the African savannah, can occur at any time, this complete loss of our meerkats is of course very sad for the Hellabrunn staff as well as the numerous zoo guests and animal sponsors.”

Tributes and condolences have been pouring in, according to German daily Bild, who reports that nearly 650 people have been in touch with the zoo to convey their sadness at the tragedy.

One netizen, named by the German daily as ‘Anna-Helidonis’, said: “My heart is crying! I loved them so much and we weren’t there yesterday because it was so late.”

And ‘Conny Kolb’ said: “Oh how awful. We were just there on Friday last week and they were so interested in our dogs! We will miss them! RIP.”

Meerkats are native to southern Africa and they live in often large, complex burrow systems that shield them from predators. They are well known to stand guard and keep watch for other animals that could harm them, and they have a complex social system that allows them to easily communicate danger to one another.