Hail kills animals and bloodies guests as glass flies like shrapnel at Colorado zoo

Hail as big as softballs turned the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs into what one guest called a “war zone” on Monday.

Videos posted online by guests show hail pounding animals in their outdoor enclosures and bouncing off the ground.

A vulture and a duck died during the storm, and at least 14 people were injured, five of whom were taken to the hospital by ambulance, Fire Capt. Brian Vaughan told The Gazette in Colorado Springs.

KOAA TV station identified the animals killed by the hailstones as a 4-year-old muscovy duck named Daisy and a 13-year-old cape vulture named Motswari. The Denver Post reported that two vultures died.

The storm blew through with wind gusts up to 60 mph, according to the Post.

An unknown number of animals were injured, zoo marketing director Jenny Koch told The Gazette. She called the damage to the zoo, which was closed Tuesday, “extensive.” More than 3,000 visitors were at the zoo when the storm hit shortly after 2 p.m.

“It became a dangerous situation for both guests, staff and also our animals,” Koch told KKTV in Colorado Springs, which characterized the afternoon storm as one of the worst to hit the Pikes Peak region this summer.

Visitors said they saw bloodied people, heard animals making a lot of noise and found shattered windshields in the parking lot. More than 400 vehicles were significantly damaged, according to KRDO.

“People were running and screaming and crying. There was a lady who was covered in blood. Car alarms were going off. It was traumatic,” guest Brandon Sneide told The Gazette. He was in the gift shop when the storm blew in.

“It was like a war zone — golf ball- and softball-sized hail just started pounding down, breaking glass all around us. It sounded like being in a war zone, like being in Iraq. It was scary.”

Tyler Hobson and her family from Austin, Texas, were in the glass-ceilinged reptile exhibit, where others huddled for shelter.

“Next thing you know, it’s pelting down this hail. Me and my husband were like, ‘This is really happening, we’ve got to get our kids safe.’ Glass was flying everywhere. All of us got cut,” she told KKTV.

Her husband, Joshua, said the hail broke through the ceiling. “Not only were (the hailstones) so large, but the force — the glass would hit the ground and it was shrapnel,” he told KKTV.