Tigers at zoo maul Afghan man to death

Tigers mauled a 21-year-old Afghan man to death after he clambered into their enclosure at Copenhagen zoo.

The three Siberian tigers bit his throat, face, chest and a thigh. His body was found early yesterday by a keeper at the Danish zoo.

A police spokesman said the man is thought to have crossed a low wall and ended up in a moat inside the enclosure late on Tuesday.

The spokesman said: “He was in the water and the animals must have seen him and attacked. He was killed in the water.”

It was unclear how or why the man had entered the tigers’ den, but investigators could not exclude suicide as a motive, police spokesman Lars Borg said.

The man only had his old residence permit and keys to his
 Copenhagen apartment on him, Mr Borg said.

Copenhagen Zoo manager Steffen Straede said it was the first time in the zoo’s 152-year history that such an incident has occurred.

He said there were no plans to review security, or to destroy any of the tigers involved.

“If a person really wants to get in, we cannot prevent it from happening,” he said.