A Siberian tiger “grabbed a
female keeper by the neck and killed her in front of the visitors.” A child was
also present at the incident.

Source-
Fox News

Zurich Zoo staff stepped in to help the 55-year-old and tried to
resurrect her from the tiger’s jaw but “sadly all help came too late,” said
Judith Hoedl, a police spokeswoman.

Sightseers raised the alarm shortly after female tiger “Irina” grabbed
the woman by the neck, inside the big cat enclosure on Saturday.

One witness claimed that the zoo emergency team took about eight to
nine minutes to reach for help. “The tiger had grabbed the woman by the
neck,” an eyewitness narrated.

Apparently a small child was among those who witnessed the horrifying
incident.

According to one witness, four police cars and an ambulance rushed to
the tiger enclosure, in the middle of the zoo.

Source- The Sun

“The police ran with pepper spray and rubber shot towards one of the
animal enclosures,” he said in an interview to a private news organization.

Despite the zoo staff luring the tiger out of the enclosure and
resuscitating a poor woman, a badly-wounded 55-year-old succumbed to her
injuries and died at the spot.

Severin Dressen, the director of Zurich Zoo stated that the fallen
zookeeper had been employed for a long time, reported by the AP news agency.

“Our full sympathy is with the
relatives of the victim,” Mr Dressen added.

Considering the traumatizing experience for
the witnesses, personal counselling has been provided to those who were at the
sightseeing.

“The
zoo’s internal emergency center received a message that an animal keeper in the
tiger facility had been attacked by a Siberian tiger,” said a Zurich zoo
spokesperson

“A
group of zookeepers immediately moved to the enclosure.”

“They
succeeded in luring Irina away from the animal keeper, out of the facility and
into the stable.”

“Despite
immediate resuscitation measures, the 55-year-old woman was unfortunately too
late to help and died on the spot.”

He said the zoo will remain close on Sunday because of the incident.

The reports of animal attacks at zoos are relatively less in number, but
this is not the first time happening at the Zurich Zoo in Switzerland.

In December 2019, a crocodile grabbed a zookeeper during a routinely
cleaning operation. The reptile mauled the worker’s hand, and the emergency
staff hadn’t any option but to shoot the animal to release the worker from its
grip.

Such incidents raise concerns over the practice of keeping wild animals
into the cages just for the sake of human entertainment. Wild animals are meant
to remain free in the forest, and not to be caged for amusement. Sometimes, it
seems better to have a Tiger King Joe Ceramic Mug or a stuffed plush cat, rather than holding poor animals in cages.