INTERNATIONAL: Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens held the first public viewing on Wednesday of twin giant panda cubs "Lei Lei" and "Xiao Xiao" who were born in June last year.

Over 500 lucky winners of a lottery walked into the panda enclosure on Wednesday morning to get their first look at Japan's popular twin pandas. Their mother "Shin Shin" arrived in Japan from China about a decade ago, and they are the first twin pandas born in the capital's Ueno Zoo.

A 37-year old visitor said, "They are really cute. I applied for the lottery at the end of last year so I was really looking forward to it. I was wondering whether this event would be held because the Omicron variant is spreading, but it was really nice that we got to see them.”

The panda public viewing event will span over three days, while the zoo itself has been temporarily closed since January 11 due to the resurgence of new Covid-19 cases in Tokyo. Only the limited number of lottery winners will have one minute each to view the mammals. It is not clear when the cubs will be on display for the public in the near future.

According to the zoo, each of the twins weighed about 100 grams when they were born, but they have grown steadily since, with Xiao Xiao weighing 14.6 kilograms and Lei Lei coming in at 14.4 kilograms as of January 11.