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A Siberian tiger at an enclosure (file image)
A Siberian tiger has attacked and killed a female zookeeper in Switzerland in entrance of website visitors and zoo workforce.
Workers rushed to her aid and ultimately managed to draw the tiger out of the cage, but the 55-calendar year-old keeper died at the scene, Zurich zoo stated.
Readers lifted the alarm at about 13:20 (11:20 GMT) on Saturday.
An investigation is under way to establish why the zookeeper was in the cage at the identical time as the tiger.
In spite of an crisis group at the zoo luring the tiger from the enclosure and into a keeping pen, initiatives to resuscitate the wounded keeper failed, the zoo mentioned in a assertion.
“Unfortunately all assist arrived far too late,” a spokeswoman for Zurich police, Judith Hoedl, explained.
The tiger, named Irina, was born at a zoo in Denmark in 2015 and transferred to Zurich very last 12 months.
The director of Zurich zoo, Severin Dressen, stated the zookeeper experienced been a member of workers there for some time, the AP news company reported.
“Our full sympathy is with the kinfolk of the sufferer,” Mr Dressen added.
Experienced counselling has been made available for those who witnessed the attack.
Zurich zoo said it would remain shut on Sunday pursuing the incident.
Animal attacks at zoos and sanctuaries are somewhat uncommon, but this is not the initial described assault at Zurich zoo.
In December 2019, a crocodile at the zoo little bit the hand of a keeper all through a regime cleaning operation in the animal’s enclosure. When the reptile unsuccessful to launch its grip on the keeper, the determination was built to shoot it.
