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White tiger kills Japan zookeeper in rare attack

News Desk (Agence France-Presse)

Tokyo, Japan

Tue, October 9, 2018 Published on Oct. 9, 2018 Published on 2018-10-09T09:32:35+07:00

Two month old white tiger cubs play with their mother on the ground at the Tobu Zoo in Miyashiro, in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo on April 19, 2015. Four male white tigers, born from their mother Cara at the zoo on January 25, will be debut in public on April 22. Only 250 white tigers live in the world. AFP / Yoshikazu TSUNO (AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

A white tiger attacked and killed a zookeeper in its enclosure in southern Japan, officials said Tuesday.

"A zookeeper was found collapsed in a cage, bleeding," a local police official told AFP, adding the man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The attack happened late Monday at the Hirakawa Zoological Park in the southern city of Kagoshima.

Akira Furusho, 40, was discovered bleeding from the neck and officials believe he was mauled by one of the zoo's four rare white tigers, media reports said.

The zoo said the tiger was sedated with a tranquiliser gun after the attack, as rescue workers and police rushed to the scene.

There was no immediate word on the fate of the tiger responsible for the attack.