Escaped tiger shot dead by German police

BERLIN - German police said on May 18 they had shot dead a tiger that escaped from an enclosure run by a woman nicknamed the “Tiger Queen” after it attacked one of the keepers.

The police told AFP news agency that the animal had seriously injured a 72-year-old man, who was being treated in hospital after the attack in the eastern city of Leipzig.

The incident took place on May 17 on the city’s outskirts and involved an “escaped tiger which was killed by police using firearms”, a police spokesman said.

The police said they were “able to locate the animal in an allotment complex” nearby and that it had to be killed “to prevent danger to those present”.

One allotment gardener told the Bild newspaper: “First, we heard sirens, and then right afterwards a helicopter came and lots of police”.

The police warned the allotment owners to stay inside, said the gardener, adding: “Then, there were suddenly several shots.”

The animal belonged to tiger trainer Carmen Zander, who told Bild that the tiger shot dead was called Sandokan.

According to Ms Zander’s website, Sandokan was a nine-year-old, 280kg Bengal-Siberian mix.

The website describes the animal as “a scaredy-cat” that could “quickly become overwhelmed and insecure” and could therefore attack “more quickly and unexpectedly” than the other animals.

Ms Zander, known as the “Tiger Queen”, has faced criticism in the past for the conditions in which the animals were kept at her enclosure.

Animal rights organisation PETA charged that local veterinary authorities “share responsibility for this tragic incident” by having failed to act against the facility sooner and demanded that the remaining animals there be confiscated.

The district authority said in a statement to AFP that it had “for some time been working to improve the housing conditions of the tigers” at the site.

Ms Zander had been instructed to comply with regulations “so that all animals have access to the necessary indoor and outdoor space, or to adjust the number of animals to the space currently available”. AFP