A woman is dead, and another severely injured after a tiger attack at Beijing Badaling Safari World. Part of the attack was captured in a surveillance video, which showed a Siberian tiger pouncing on one of the women.
At the wildlife park located near the Great Wall, visitors can watch animals in a safari-like setting, but are warned not to get out of their cars. In the Saturday morning mauling, the video shows a woman in her mid-30s exiting the car, and walking around to the driver’s seat. Some reports say she got out of the car because of a family argument, but the South China Morning Post reported the family wasn’t fighting, but had thought they exited the main wildlife area.
It was while talking to her husband that a tiger ran up behind her and knocked her down and dragged her away in a matter of seconds. The woman’s husband and her 57-year old mother ran after the tiger in an attempt to rescue her. Off-camera, her mother was killed by a second tiger. The younger woman survived, and is at the hospital in serious condition. She underwent surgery Sunday morning. A young boy, also in the car, was unharmed.
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According to What’s On Weibo, this is not the park’s first tragedy. In March of this year, the park’s managing director was trampled to death by an elephant. In 2009, an 18-year-old was killed by a tiger, and again in 2014 a guard was killed by a tiger.
In 2012, a tiger escaped the park when the electric fences were turned off to allow a patrol car to pass, the Global Times reported. An employee at the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens told Global Times that Chinese wildlife parks have significant security concerns because there are no standards in the industry.
“There needs to be specific regulations for this industry, which can potentially endanger people’s lives,” she said.
Shanghai Daily reported that the park was now closed. According to the BBC, park officials haven’t publicly acknowledged the attack, but have said the park was closing for two days due to impending rain.
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