A 25-year-old keeper with a safari park in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, on Monday died of serious wounds from bites by a female tiger reared at the park.

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

The keeper, surnamed Xu, patrolled the tiger garden inside Shenyang Forest Safari Park as usual together with his colleague, Yuan Fengwei, at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Before Xu could reach their motor vehicle parked some one meter away after having stepped outside the tiger shelter, a three-year-old tigress suddenly assaulted him from behind, biting him in the shoulder and neck. Yuan immediately shot at the animal with the anesthetic rifle in his hand and the female tiger went away on hearing the gun shot.

Xu was rushed to the No. 1 People's Hospital of Shenyang City for emergency treatment at around 6:40 p.m. but died at 0:40 Monday.

While lamenting the death of Xu, Liu Dajun, general manager of the park, said they would draw a lesson from the accident and try to prevent similar tragedy in the future.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2004)