A man was found mauled to death in the tigers’ enclosure at the Bloemfontein zoo on Sunday, said police.
Captain Elsa Gerber said an adult visitor to the zoo raised the alarm when he saw a body lying in the enclosure of two tigers at noon.
”We don’t know who he is, how he got there, where he’s from or anything else,” she said.
”He must have climbed over the fence. That’s the only way he could have got in there.”
It appeared he had been walking around the enclosure, consisting of a large roaming area surrounded by a big ditch, said Gerber.
The area was cordoned off to the public and the tigers kept in their sleeping quarters while police removed the man’s body, she said.
”He had bite marks and scratch marks and bruises on his body,” she said, but added that his body was intact, indicating that the animals had not tried to feed on him.
However, it was difficult to say how he died. That would be determined by a post mortem.
Gerber said the man was naked when he was found. His clothes had been ripped from his body and the shreds were found in the enclosure too. – Sapa