GERMANY/FILE: Tiger at German zoo kills keeper before it is shot dead.

Record ID: 353700

  • Title: GERMANY/FILE: Tiger at German zoo kills keeper before it is shot dead.
  • Date: 25th August 2012
  • Summary: ZOO VISITORS
  • Embargoed: 9th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Disasters,Environment,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA66D0209BEQ07SFMZBSBL08YCL
  • Story Text: A tiger attacked and killed a female keeper at Cologne zoo on Saturday before being shot dead, according to the zoo's director and local police.

    A Siberian tiger mauled and killed one of its keepers at a zoo in Cologne on Saturday (August 25).
    According to reports, the gate of the tiger's enclosure had not been properly shut, allowing the big cat to jump on the woman and bite her to death before the animal was shot dead.
    "Today is surely the most terrible day in my career," zoo director Theo Pagel told reporters outside the zoo.
    "We have lost a keeper today who was attacked by our male tiger. As it appears, it was a question of inadvertence."
    Pagel said he was not at the zoo when the accident happened.
    "I was not at the zoo at the time and I only came later and shot and killed the animal so that we could enter the enclosure and take a look. But the employee was already dead," said Pagel.
    A spokesman for Cologne police, Lothar Eulenbach said: "around 12 noon today, an injured zoo keeper was found by one of her colleagues inside the tiger enclosure. At the time, the tiger was still near the injured keeper."
    "It was then possible to lure the tiger away to a back section but there was the possibility for the tiger to escape to freedom. Zoo personnel then managed to shoot dead the tiger in order to reach the injured keeper."
    Police briefly cleared the area after the incident which happened in a section closed to the public but the zoo later reopened for visitors.
    Cologne zoo in western Germany, founded in 1860, is one of the oldest and best-known in the country and is home to some 10,000 animals from 700 species.
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