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A zookeeper was mauled to death by a white tiger at a New Zealand wildlife park Wednesday in an attack witnessed by horrified tourists, police said.
The male wildlife keeper was attacked by the animal while cleaning an enclosure in Whangarei's Zion Wildlife Gardens in New Zealand's north.
Eight foreign tourists at the park were understood to have seen the mauling, a police spokeswoman added.
"It was very, very frightening," an Auckland man told a Fairfax reporter, without giving his name.
Two keepers had gone into an enclosure containing two white tigers, when one of the animals attacked, the police spokeswoman said.
"Despite the best efforts of the second keeper and a rapid response from other wildlife park staff, the tiger would not let the park worker go and he died at the scene," she said.
The tiger was later destroyed by staff and the wildlife park was closed.
Another employee of the park, which is home to around 40 rare lions and tigers, required surgery after he was attacked in February by a white tiger after it was startled by a pride of lions.
Zion Wildlife Gardens are well known in New Zealand as the home of the Lion Man television series, which followed the work of Craig Busch, who was dismissed from the park controlled by his mother last year.
On Tuesday, Busch claimed in a court hearing over his dismissal that animal care and safety standards had slipped at the park since the breakdown of his relationship with his mother.
"I became very concerned with animal welfare issues," he said.
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry documents released to Television New Zealand last year expressed concerns over animals kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions.
Inspectors were at one stage so concerned by conditions at Zion Wildlife Gardens they considered having 40 lions and tigers put down.
The ministry later said immediate animal welfare concerns had been addressed.
