Two escaped lemurs have been returned to an Austrian zoo after embarking on a week-long crime spree.

The duo hot-footed it from Salzburg's Hellbrunn Zoo by dashing out of the door when their keeper walked in.

CEN reports that they celebrated their freedom by attacking local residents' washing lines, turning over garden furniture, stealing fruit and harassing domestic pets, before winding up in a hotel bar.

Hotel manager Andreas Hasenohrl said: "I couldn't believe it when I came in for work in the morning. It looked like they were looking for something to drink.

"They were playing with the bottles, but I gave them a banana instead and quickly shut all the doors and windows."

Keepers were then able to recapture the law-breaking primates, and have since renamed them King Julien and Maurice, after the ruler of the lemurs and his trusty sidekick in the film Madagascar.