One zoo visitor was mauled to death and two others severely injured when a Siberian tiger escaped from its grotto at the San Francisco Zoo early Christmas evening and went on a bloody rampage in front of terrified zoo patrons report the San Francisco Chronicle.
The tiger - the same animal that chewed a keeper’s arm during an attack last December - was shot to death outside a zoo cafe by four officers who managed to distract the animal as it mauled one of its victims.
The horrifying violence, which occurred just after the zoo’s 5 p.m. closing time while dozens of patrons were still inside, began when the tiger somehow managed to gain its liberty from the grotto.
The animal, a 4-year-old tiger named Tatiana, did not leave the grotto through its only door, zookeepers said. The grotto is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and a 20-foot-high wall. “We don’t know how it was able to get out,” said Robert Jenkins, director of animal care at the zoo. “The tiger should not have been able to jump (out). This is the first thing we will be investigating.”
Police officers refused to rule out carelessness or criminal activity as possible means for the tiger’s escape.
The two injured men, ages 19 and 23, both underwent surgery Tuesday evening. The man who died, also thought to be in his 20s, was found near the tiger grotto, police said.
After the initial attack, the tiger proceeded about 300 yards to the Terrace Cafe restaurant, where it assaulted the other two victims with its claws and teeth.
Alerted by frantic calls from the zoo, four officers arrived in two police cars and tracked the tiger to the cafe. The tiger was sitting next to one victim but, when the officers arrived, it resumed its attack.
Read it here: Tiger kills San Francisco Zoo patron, injures two others