A 25-year-old keeper at the Shenyang Forest Safari Park in the capital of Liaoning Province died Monday after being mauled by a female tiger.

It is the first such accident at the park, said a park staff member.

The keeper, surnamed Xu, was on a routine patrol in the tiger compound with his colleague, Yuan Fengwei, at about 4:30 PM Sunday.

After Xu stepped outside the tiger shelter, about one meter from their motor vehicle, a three-year-old tigress that had been reared at the park assaulted him from behind, biting him in the shoulder and neck. Yuan immediately shot at the animal with the anesthetic rifle he carried and the tiger withdrew.

Xu arrived at the emergency room of the No. 1 People's Hospital of Shenyang City at about 6:40 PM, but died at 0:40 Monday.

Liu Dajun, general manager of the park, said they would draw a lesson from the accident and try to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2004)