Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 29 (IANS): In a first of its kind theft in a zoo, miscreants made away with a vault weighing two-and-a-half quintals from the cash room of the Allen Forest zoo in Kanpur.

According to reports, a sum of Rs 6 lakh was kept in the vault. When the officers reached the cash room, they found it to be locked from outside, but the safe was missing.

The police have initiated investigations and were questioning employees on the basis of inputs by senior zoo authorities after registering a complaint against anonymous persons.

The zoo-authorities told the police that the revenue generated from the visitors was kept in a vault in the cash room in the administrative building located in the premises itself.

"When excess cash is generated, it is deposited in the zoo's treasury. The earnings made in about one week were stashed in the vault and kept inside the safe, the lock of which was closed from outside," officials said.

This is the first time in Uttar Pradesh that a theft has been reported from a zoo.