Girl, 2, injured after falling into Florida zoo's rhino enclosure

The rhino enclosure at the Florida zoo. Photo / Twitter, News6 WKMG

Officials say a 2-year-old girl has been injured after falling into the rhinoceros exhibit at a Florida zoo.

Brevard County Fire Rescue officials said the girl was taken to an Orlando hospital for treatment. Her mother was also taken to a hospital for treatment.

The incident happened at the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Florida.

The zoo's executive director Keith Winsten told Florida Today they don't believe the rhino's horn touched the child. The extent of her injuries wasn't immediately known.

He says she fell through the steel poles that separate guests from rhinos during a hands-on experience.

Zoo spokesman Elliot Zirulnik says the zoo has offered the hands-on experience daily since 2009 without any incidents prior to today.

Zirulnik said: "According to witnesses, the child stumbled and fell in between two of the poles and at this point, the snout of at least one of the rhinoceroses made contact with the child".

The area of contact was below the horn near the rhino's mouth area, Zirulnik said.

The 2-year-old girl was rescued by her father from the exhibit, News 6 WKMG reports. The zoo has four southern white rhinos.

-AP