When a zookeeper accidentally entered the cage of a rare female white Bengal tiger during feeding time, the large cat attacked him to death.
At the Mariupol Zoo in Russian-occupied Ukraine, Alexey Melnikov passed away quickly when the tigress, Lucy, “attacked him and gnawed his head.”
Galina Zamarakhina, a fellow zoo worker who barely avoided the beast, saw the horrifying assault. She said that before Alexey entered the enclosure, he thought he had transported.
The tigress to another cage. However, it seems that he had not really relocated the large feline, and when he went inside the cage, he was startled to see Lucy hiding in a wooden cave.
Galina remembered, “I heard a scream.” She [the tigress] was staring at me, so I somehow closed the cage in time. “I’m not sure how I was able to close it,” she said.
