Witnesses said the man mauled to death by a tiger at a UK zoo was seen “praying” and “bowing” toward the animal after entering its enclosure. They also described how a stranger desperately tried to stop him as he climbed in.
After entering the big cat enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Saturday, the man “started praying to the tiger, bowing down to it,” witness Scarlet Hogan, 21, told The Telegraph.
“The tiger looked a bit confused,” she said.
Hogan said the man appeared to be “in a trance, not in reality at all” until the tiger attacked him.
The visitor also recalled seeing the man take out his phone and appear to “be taking selfies” with the tiger inside its enclosure.
“Then when he got on all fours, he started praying. It was the strangest thing ever,” Hogan said.
Hogan, who was at the park with her boyfriend Anthony Hunt, said there had been a brief struggle before the man entered the enclosure.
The couple said a mother visiting the “Land of the Tigers” exhibit with her two children “desperately tried to pull back” the man as he prepared to jump into the enclosure of Altai, a Siberian tiger.
“He overpowered her and jumped off. She seemed really frightened,” Hunt told The Telegraph.
The mother later told the couple that she had heard the man “saying something religious,” they said.
Earlier that day, Hogan and Hunt had noticed the man dancing “erratically” elsewhere in the park, although they did not initially think anything of it.
Another witness said she saw him dancing and listening to music through his AirPods shortly before he jumped into Altai’s enclosure.
Witness Marie Miller said the young man appeared to be “happily enjoying seeing the tiger” before climbing into the enclosure and being attacked.
Video widely shared online shows the tiger biting and clawing the man’s back as he sat on the grass and attempted to defend himself. He raised a finger toward the animal while shouting at it.
The man, whose identity has not been publicly released, was later mauled by the tiger.
“He had arms wide open ready for the tiger to attack him. It was quite bad,” Hogan said. “We were just stood there, frozen…the last thing we saw was the tiger’s jaw on his neck.”
South Yorkshire Police said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Following the fatal attack, a black screen was placed around the enclosure, and the park closed for the rest of the weekend.
“Our emergency response procedures were immediately activated,” Yorkshire Wildlife Park said in a statement.
“We are working closely with the authorities to ascertain exactly what happened. The safety and wellbeing of our visitors, staff and animals remain our highest priority.”
The park also confirmed that Altai is “safe and well and will not be euthanized as a result of this incident.”
