Rare white tiger mauls zookeeper to death in enclosure at Japanese zoo
A rare white tiger has mauled a zookeeper to death in its enclosure at a Japanese zoo.
A 40-year-old man was found in the animal’s cage, bleeding from his neck.
He was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
He was later named as Akira Furusho. He had been found collapsed and bleeding in the tiger’s enclosure.
Officials at the Hirakawa Zoological Park believe he was attacked by one of the facility’s four white tigers.
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According to the Kyodo news agency, he was attacked by a male tiger named Riku.
The animal is 1.8m long and weighs about 170kg.
The animal was sedated by a tranquiliser before police and rescue workers arrived at the zoo. Its condition is unknown.
The attacked happened on Monday at the zoo, which is in the southern city of Kagoshima.
Police have launched an investigation into how the zoo looks after its white tigers. The zoo opened in 1972.
It is the second attack on a zoo worker in Japan this year.
In March, a female worker at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo was injured after a gorilla bit her in the right arm.
She had been taking the animal from its public display area to its living space.
Last year, a British zookeeper was killed by a tiger at a zoo in Cambridgeshire. Rosa King, 33, a zookeeper at Hamerton Zoo Park died in May 2017 when a tiger entered the enclosure where she was working.
