Tiger Kills Female Keeper At German Zoo

A tiger has attacked and killed a female keeper at Cologne Zoo in Germany before being shot dead.
The tiger managed to escape from its enclosure into an adjacent storage building, where it jumped on top of the 43-year-old keeper.
The woman, mauled and biten by the giant cat, later died of her wounds in hospital.



"It appears the gate wasn't properly shut," said police spokesman Stefan Kirchner.
The zoo's director then used a rifle to shoot the animal dead through the storage building's skylight before it could make its way to the visitor areas, he added.

Visitors were not harmed during the incident, which occurred at around noon local time (1100 BST) on Saturday, and Mr Kirchner said it was unlikely that members of the public had witnessed the attack.
"This is the darkest day of my life," zoo director Theo Pagel was quoted as saying by Cologne newspaper Express.

The newspaper reported on its website that the tiger was a male called 'Altai'.
Police briefly cleared the area after the incident but the zoo later reopened for visitors.
But a planned late-night opening of the zoo has reportedly been cancelled.
Cologne zoo in western Germany, founded in 1860, is one of the oldest and best-known in the country and is home to some 10,000 animals from 700 species.