Tbilisi Zoo runaway hippo among TIME’s picks of top photos of 2015

A runaway hippo on the loose in the streets of Tbilisi, June 14, 2015. Photo by Beso Gulashvili/Georgian PM’s Press Service
Agenda.ge, 09 Dec 2015 - 11:58, Tbilisi,Georgia

A picture featuring a runaway hippo, loose on the streets of Tbilisi following the June 13 flood has been named among the Top 100 Photos of 2015 by New York-based weekly magazine TIME.

The photo of Tbilisi Zoo hippo Beggy was taken by photographer Beso Gulashvili on the morning of June 14, 2015 following a flash flood the previous night that killed 19 and devastated the capital city’s infrastructure.

Portions of Tbilisi Zoo were also destroyed, allowing many animals - including six tigers, six lions and eight bears - to break free of their enclosures and roam the streets.

Beggy became a living face of the June 13 flash flood. Authorities had to tranquilize her to safely return her back to the Zoo.

Now Beggy is in good health and temporarily shares an elephant’s enclosure as her former home was completely destroyed.

At the end of each year TIME’s photo editors present an unranked selection of the best 100 images of the year. The other top pictures of 2015 included heart-wrenching moments of the refugee crisis in Europe, terror attacks across the world and many stunning photos such as the International Space Station crew coming back to Earth and the first clear photograph of Pluto, a planet that had remained a blur, literally and scientifically, for 85 years.