Rare white tiger kills zookeeper in Japan

The incident occurred at the Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima city.

Tokyo: A rare white tiger has mauled a zookeeper to death in its enclosure at a zoo in Japan, an official said.

The 40-year-old man was found bleeding from the neck in the tiger`s cage late on Monday at the Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima city. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, the BBC reported.

Zoo authorities believe he was attacked by one of the park`s four white tigers. The tiger was sedated with a tranquiliser before rescue workers and police arrived at the scene.

Police is now probing how the zoo looks after its white tigers, Japan`s Kyodo news agency said.

In 2017, a British zookeeper was killed by a tiger in its enclosure in a Cambridgeshire zoo, while in Russia a keeper survived a tiger attack in the city of Kaliningrad.