BERLIN (AP) — A bear has been killed after it escaped from its enclosure at a zoo in the northern German town of Osnabrueck.

The German news agency dpa reported the bear was shot by zoo personnel and all visitors were temporarily evacuated on Saturday.

The head of the zoo, Andreas Busemann, said that, "We reacted immediately with our team, and in order to protect the visitors, we had to shoot him."

Busemann said the bear, called Taps, was one of the zoo's attractions, a so-called cappuccino bear — with a polar bear and a brown bear as parents.

He said it wasn't clear how the animal had managed to escape from the compound, but that police were investigating.