Escaped tiger shot dead by German police

Carmen Zander performs with a tiger during the gala of the 42th Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival in Monaco, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, Pool)

Warning: Graphic content.

German police said Monday they had shot dead a tiger that escaped from an enclosure run by a woman nicknamed the “Tiger Queen” after it attacked one of the keepers.

Police told AFP that the animal had seriously injured a 72-year-old man, who was being treated in hospital after the attack in the eastern city of Leipzig.

The incident happened Sunday on the city’s outskirts and involved an “escaped tiger which was killed by police using firearms,” the police spokesman said.

Police said they were “able to locate the animal in an allotment complex” nearby and that it had to be killed “to prevent danger to those present”.

One allotment gardener told the Bild newspaper: “First we heard sirens and then right afterwards a helicopter came and lots of police”, who warned the allotment owners to stay inside.

“Then there were suddenly several shots.”

The animal belonged to tiger trainer Carmen Zander, who told Bild that the tiger shot dead was called Sandokan.

According to Zander’s website, Sandokan was a nine-year-old, 280-kilogram (615 pound) Bengal-Siberian mix.

The website describes the animal as “a scaredy-cat” that could “quickly become overwhelmed and insecure” and could therefore attack “more quickly and unexpectedly” than the other animals.

Zander, known as the “Tiger Queen”, has faced criticism in the past for the conditions in which the animals are kept at her enclosure.

Animal rights group PETA charged that veterinary authorities “share responsibility for this tragic incident” by having failed to act against the facility sooner and demanded that the remaining animals there be confiscated.

The district authority said in a statement to AFP that it had “for some time been working to improve the housing conditions of the tigers” at the site.

Zander had been instructed to comply with regulations “so that all animals have access to the necessary indoor and outdoor space, or to adjust the number of animals to the space currently available”.

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