BERLIN A fire at a zoo in western Germany in the first minutes of 2020 killed more than 30 animals, including apes, monkeys, bats and birds, authorities said. Police said the fire may have been caused by sky lanterns launched to celebrate the new year.

Several witnesses reported that they had seen the cylindrical paper lanterns with little fires inside flying in the night sky shortly after midnight Wednesday near the Krefeld zoo, Gerd Hoppmann, the citys head of criminal police, told reporters.

People reported seeing those sky lanterns flying at low altitude near the zoo, and then it started burning, Hoppmann said.

Police and firefighters received the first emergency calls at 12:38 a.m.