A female zookeeper has died after a ‘serious incident’ involving a tiger at Hamerton Zoo. Visitors at the zoo were evacuated after police and an air ambulance were called to deal with what happened around 11am this morning. In a sign pinned up at the site, the zoo management said staff were ‘too distressed to speak directly to the media
as one of our colleagues was killed this
morning’. ‘This appears to have been a freak accident’. Cambridgeshire Police said the force responded to a call indicating that a ‘serious incident’ was in progress at the zoo, around 80 miles north of London.

Witnesses recalled hearing screams and
keepers desperately trying to distract
tigers with pieces of meat as Bank
Holiday visitors were evacuated from
Hamerton Park Zoo in Cambridgeshire. We attended an incident at Hamerton Zoo Park today. We are unable further info at this time but we can confirm that no animals have escaped.
A statement from the zoo released on
Monday evening said staff were too upset to talk because "one of our colleagues was killed in a freak accident". The statement gave no more details, but said said at no point had any of the animals escaped and the public had not been in danger. Pete Davis, who had been visiting the 25-acre zoo with his family, said he had seen a young female keeper run into a tiger enclosure to help a colleague who was shouting. Soon after she entered, Mr Davis said he heard screams. Mr Davis, 55, said: “There's no doubting it was a girl's scream and something terrible had happened. It sounds like a tiger turned on her.” Another keeper then ran out and
ordered visitors to run. “A group of us ran into the keepers’ rooms for about 10 minutes until a keeper said we could leave . “At this point we understood by the reactions of the staff that something
was going on inside the enclosure. We
could see staff members on the other
side of the fence with pieces of meat
trying to get whatever s attention . It was heart-breaking seeing them trying
to help.”
The 25 acre zoo near Sawtry, Cambs,
has tigers, cheetahs and a number of
other wild cats, including lynxes,
servals and oncillas. The zoo also has
wolves.
Police said the public were not at risk and no animals had escaped but did not elaborate.


http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/29/female-zookeeper-dies-after-serious-incident-with-tiger-at-hamerton-zoo-6670716/

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