A tiger that mauled a zookeeper last year escaped from its pen at the San Francisco Zoo on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring two others before police shot it dead, authorities said.
The three men were in their 20s; they were together and were not zoo employees, San Francisco Police spokesman Steve Mannina said. They were attacked just after the 5 pm (9 am yesterday, Beijing time) closing time, on the east end of the 51-hectare grounds.
They suffered "pretty aggressive bite marks", Mannina said.
It was unclear how the tiger escaped or how long it was on the loose. The approximately 136-kg female Siberian tiger, named Tatiana, attacked a zookeeper last December during a public feeding, according to the zoo's director of animal care and conservation.
Robert Jenkins, the zoo's director of animal care and conservation, could not explain how the animal escaped. The tiger's enclosure is surrounded by a 5-m-wide moat, and 6-m-wide walls.
"There was no way out through the door," Jenkins said. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leapt out of the enclosure."
The zoo, which is open 365 days a year, was evacuated immediately after the attack was reported.
The two injured men were in critical but stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital, Fire Department spokesman Lieutenant Ken Smith said. A call to the supervising nurse at San Francisco General was not immediately returned.
Authorities did not believe there were any other people attacked, but because it was dark they could not be certain. Investigators, using ladders and flashlights, remained on the scene. Smith said a thorough sweep of the grounds would be conducted in the morning.
Although no new visitors were let in after 5 pm (9 am yesterday, Beijing time), the grounds were not scheduled to close until an hour later, and there were between 20 and 25 people still on site when the attacks happened, zoo officials said.
There are five tigers at the zoo - three Sumatrans, and two Siberians. Officials initially worried that four tigers had escaped, but they soon learned that only one had left its pen, according to Mannina.
In December 2006, the animal reached through the cage's iron bars and badly lacerated a zookeeper's arm. The zoo's Lion House was temporarily closed during an investigation.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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