Family of man who illegally entered China zoo enclosure resulting in his death demands compensation

The incident was played out in front of his wife and children.

Jeanette Tan | Martino Tan | January 31, 2017, 09:44 PM

We're not sure if you have heard about this grisly tragedy over the Chinese New Year weekend, but we'll take you through it if this is your first time learning of it.

According to reports in Shanghaiist, a man who climbed illegally into the tiger enclosure of a zoo in Ningbo, a city in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, was immediately attacked by three tigers.

The man, who was with his wife and children, scaled an outer 3m-high wall with a friend of his in a bid to avoid paying a 130 yuan (S$26.80) entrance fee to the zoo. A subsequent report by the same website said the man and his family was in financial difficulty.

Leaving his friend behind, the man climbed a second 3m wall and unwittingly landed in the zoo's tiger enclosure, where the mauling took place in front of a crowd of horrified zoo visitors as well as his wife and children, who had bought tickets to enter.

Man succumbed to his injuries

Staff at the zoo soon arrived and fired shots into the enclosure, sending two of the three tigers who were attacking the man running away, but the one who initially sank its teeth into the man continued dragging and attacking him.

The rescue took over an hour to complete and occurred with man's wife and kids watching.

The victim was rushed to hospital, but failed to survive his injuries.

Multiple amateur videos of the mauling surfaced online soon after, one of which shows an uncensored view of the attack.

Relatives of the deceased man said that zoo should be blamed for security gaps

Two days later the tragedy, the victim's family has reportedly travelled to Ningbo, arguing that they deserve compensation for the zoo's failure to "give people the opportunity to climb over" the two walls.

What happened to the tiger?

The BBC reported that the tiger was shot dead by a special forces unit from the local police.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that the zoo remained closed on Monday.

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