The fox attack left the zoo's flamingo pen empty

A fox has broken into a zoo in Finland and killed an entire flock of 16 flamingos, officials at the zoo say.

The fox climbed over a fence at the Helsinki zoo to get into the flamingo pen overnight.

The zoo is on an island in the Finnish capital and the fox had apparently walked over ice to reach it.

An investigation was under way as to why the flamingos - which were normally brought inside overnight because of the cold - had been left out.

The zoo has 150 animal species and nearly 1,000 plant species.