A Siberian tiger attacks and kills a female zookeeper in Switzerland in front of tourists and zoo staff. The staff members raced to her rescue and finally managed to drag the tiger out of the enclosure, but the 55-year-old keeper died on the spot. At around 13:20 (11:20 GMT) on Saturday, tourists raised the alarm. An investigation is pending to figure out why the zookeeper was in the enclosure at the same moment as the tiger. Despite an emergency zoo crew trying to lure the tiger from the cage into the containment room, attempts to rescue the injured zookeeper was futile, the zoo staff said.
“Sadly, all help came too late,” a spokeswoman for Zurich police, Judith Hoedl, said.
This animal was raised in a zoo in Denmark in 2015 and moved last year to Zurich. The Zurich Zoo manager, Severin Dressen, said the zookeeper had been a staff member for an extended period.
“Our full sympathy is with the relatives of the victim,” Mr. Dressen added.
A professional counselor counseled all those who observed the attack. After the incident, Zurich zoo said they would stay closed on Sunday. Animal attacks are relatively uncommon at zoos and nature preserves, although this is not Zurich’s first recorded incident. In December 2019, a crocodile bit a keeper’s hand in the animal cage during a regularly scheduled cleaning procedure at this same zoo. They shot the reptile when it failed to loosen its hold on the keeper.
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