Zoo keeper is mauled to death by a tiger
A TIGER has mauled a keeper to death in an enclosure at a zoo packed with visitors.
Families were evacuated from the attraction amid panic and confusion after the big cat killed the woman.
Pete Davis, 55, described hearing a “blood-curdling scream, then another keeper ran out and shouted ‘Run’.”
Grandad Pete said: “There’s no doubting it was a girl’s scream and something terrible had happened.
“She had run into the enclosure after hearing one of her colleagues shouting and moments later all hell let loose.”
Pete, who was at the zoo with his son and grandson, added: “It was total panic. There were keepers rushing about throwing about buckets of meat to try and get the tigers under control.
He added: “They ushered us away to another building where they made us stay for around 10 minutes. You could see the keepers with their heads in their hands.”
It was initially feared a tiger had escaped.
One visitor said he had “never run so fast” as when he fled.
Police, paramedics and an air ambulance were scrambled to Hamerton Zoo Park in Cambs yesterday morning but the keeper died at the scene. Visitor Charlie Hawthorn, 18, said: “When we were going into the zoo, zoo keepers came rushing over telling us there’d been a serious incident and everyone needed to get out. “Then they let us back in for around 15 or 20 minutes before the zoo keepers started running around in a bit more of a panic and saying everyone had to get out. “There was one woman saying a teenage boy was missing and it was absolute chaos.” The zoo, which keeps Malayan and Bengal tigers, confirmed last night a staff member was killed.
Bosses said: “This appears to have been a freak accident.
“A full investigation is under way... At no point during the incident did any animals escape their enclosures, and at no point was public safety affected.”
They added “all our thoughts and sympathies” are with their colleague’s friends and family “at this dreadful time”.
Police said: “A tiger had entered an enclosure with a keeper.” They added the death was not believed to be suspicious.
In 2008 a cheetah escaped the zoo and ended up in a nearby garden where it was spotted by a boy playing on his bike.