A tiger was shot dead by an American policeman to save a zoo worker
A Malaysian tiger was killed in captivity by a policeman on Wednesday evening after it failed to let go of the arm of a man who tried to pet it in a restricted area of a zoo in the US state of Florida, according to local media.
The approximately twenty-year-old man, an employee of a cleaning company that provides services at the zoo, was seriously injured and required hospitalization.
The man entered the zoo on Wednesday evening "in a restricted area near a tiger that was in its vicinity" after the site was closed to the public, according to the Collier County police, where the zoo is located in the city of Naples.
The man then inserted his arm through a hole in the fence and was "playing or feeding the animal" when he was attacked, according to initial police reports.
After kicking the fence in an attempt to keep the animal away, the first policeman at the scene shot the tiger, killing the 8-year-old male animal, Eko, according to the local press.
The zoo, which did not respond to AFP's requests on Thursday, announced on its website the creation of a unit concerned with psychologically assisting employees in the face of a state of "mourning".
The zoo's Facebook page was flooded with messages of support for staff and sad comments, whose owners expressed regret for the "futile" incident that claimed the life of a "wonderful tiger".
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