Tiger attack victim 'overpowered' woman who 'tried to save' him as witness recalls his final moments
Seconds before a guest at Yorkshire Wildlife Park jumped into the zoo's tiger enclosure, where the jungle cat fatally mauled him, a woman had attempted to stop him.
According to witnesses of the tragic attack on Saturday (10 Oct), a mother had 'desperately tried to pull back' the male victim as he attempted to climb into an enclosure housing a tiger named Altai.
Police were called to the facility at around 1:35 pm following reports that a man had entered the pen, after which visitors were evacuated.
One group of witnesses told The Mirror that shots had been fired in a bid to distract the tiger while the emergency services attempted to approach.
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"The animal wasn't shot and is absolutely fine and not injured," one explained.
Another added: "We heard four gunshots, but didn't think anything of it until we heard the air ambulance trying to land and then one of the park staff approached us and told us we had to leave the park."
South Yorkshire Police later confirmed, however, that the man had been killed by the tiger, and had been pronounced dead on the scene.
Anthony Hunt and his girlfriend Scarlet Hogan had been guests at the zoo that fateful day, and had stood witness to the attack.
The couple later told The Telegraph that another female visitor, who'd been with her two children on the day, had attempted to intervene when she saw a man trying to jump into the enclosure.
They claimed the victim overpowered her, however, and leapt from a bridge into the pen.
"He overpowered her and jumped off," Hunt reflected. "She seemed really frightened. We spoke to her after, and she was like, 'I tried to pull him back', but I guess she didn’t want to risk her own life as well.
"We did hear some gunshots, but that was when they shot the ground, then the police told us [the man] was pronounced dead."
He added: "The woman said the man was saying something religious."
Hogan also recalled: "We tracked the tiger’s eyes and we saw him in the corner just walking across the enclosure. The tiger got alerted. He went into stalk mode. The tiger came flying off the ledge and approached him.
She added: "The man started praying to the tiger, bowing down to it - the tiger looked a bit confused. Up until he got attacked, it was like he was in a trance, not in reality at all."
Hogan also claimed the man had been dancing in the enclosure, yielding his phone, before the attack.
"It looked like he was taking selfies," Hogan went on. "Then when he got on all fours he started praying. It was the strangest thing ever.
“He had arms wide open ready for the tiger to attack him. It was quite bad. We were just stood there, frozen... the last thing we saw was the tiger’s jaw on his neck."
Hogan and Hunt claimed they'd seen the same man, believed to be in his mid-20s, dancing 'erratically' earlier in the day in the zoo car park, but had thought nothing of it.
The wildlife park remained closed the day after the attack, with a spokesperson confirming that staff affected by the gory incident would be receiving specialised support.
The zoo later confirmed that the tiger would not be euthanised over the attack.
Rhianna Benson