Tigger escapes

wisteria · #1 26.12.2007, 4:31 am

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — 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 p.m. closing time, on the east end of the 125-acre 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 300-pound 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 15-foot-wide moat, and 20-foot-high walls.

"There was no way out through the door," said Jenkins. "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.

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