Most visitors to a zoo would never expect to be involved in a truck accident while leisurely observing the animals.

However, that was what happened at the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens last week, police in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City revealed on Monday.

One week on, one of the visitors injured in the accident continues to be treated in hospital, officers confirmed.

At around 8:00 am on May 23, zookeeper Le Thi Ngoc Mai, 52, asked her 53-year-old colleague Nguyen Van Bay to help her learn to drive, according to the police file.

Bay agreed and asked Mai to step onto the cabin of one of the zoo’s trucks to begin the lesson.

Shortly after getting behind the wheel, Mai crashed the truck into a group of four visitors, who were resting on a bench inside the zoo.

Three of them, U.S. national Robert Conte and two Vietnamese women, Phan Thi Ngoc Bich and Dang Thi Chau, had to be hospitalized.

Another visitor, Nguyen Minh Hoang, suffered only minor injuries.

District 1 police said on Monday that Conte and Chau were recovering well, but Bich remained under observation because of the critical nature of her injuries.

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