Outcry has been enormous after the Cincinnati Zoo lethally shot a 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla known as Harambe over the weekend, after he grabbed hold of a four-year-old boy who had slipped into his habitat enclosure.

A viral video shows the incident as the little boy sits in the water inside the enclosure before Harambe picked him up and stood over him in a protective way, as a stunned crowd got audibly more upset and worried over the child's safety. In the end, the zoo shot the gorilla and killed him in order to reocver the boy, who was released from a hospital hours later.

The zoo has said that killing Harambe was the necessary precaution because the unidentified child was in "imminent danger."

Watch the crazy moment where the boy was picked up below.