MALDON Prom's petting zoo will be open to well wishers this morning following after 155 of the animals were killed in a fire at the Dengie farm where they were kept.

The blaze in a barn at the premises in Mayland overnight on Sunday, 4 July, was started by an electrical fault in a freezer.

Firefighters were quickly on scene but found a large barn 100 per cent alight and were unable to save many of the zoo's exotic and other rescued animals.

The losses include petting zoo favourites such as Mac and Benson the macaws, Raz the parrot, Jake the giant tortoise, the meerkats, Hugo the armadillo and Sirius & Severus the skunks, among others.

In a message on the Facebook page of J&C Party Pets this morning (Wednesday, 7 July), owners Craig and James said: "Thank you again for the amazing help and support from so many - it is honestly staggering.

"If you have messaged, helped, given financial support or anything and I haven't replied I am honestly struggling to keep up with the amazing support. It is so heart warming for all of us at the zoo.

"Our doors at Maldon zoo will be open to well wishers, people who would like to chat or pay their respects to our amazing lovely animal team that we lost.

"Doors will be open between 2pm to 4pm - anyone welcome, it will be nice to see some friendly faces. I will be there, possibly some of my team but this will be optional.

"Thank you all so much."

More details of how you can help the zoo as they recover from the tragedy are available by visiting the J&S Party Pets Facebook page at the link here.