Chinese man killed by zoo tiger ‘scaled two 3m walls to avoid paying entrance fee’
Four visitors who tried sneaking into the same zoo in 2006 were nearly killed by lions
A man who was mauled to death by a tiger at a zoo in eastern China on Sunday was found to have climbed two three-metre walls to avoid paying the entrance fee, according to the official announcement by the zoo.
A video taken on Sunday showing a tiger dragging the man covered in blood around in its compound at the Ningbo Youngor Zoo in Zhejiang province went viral on the internet.
One tiger was shot and killed while zoo staff tried various methods to save the man, including setting off firecrackers to drive it and its companions away.
The badly injured Zhang was rescued more than an hour later, but was later declared dead in hospital
The zoo was evacuated as investigators tried to find out how the man entered the tiger enclosure that is separated from visitors by a moat and a stone wall.
Late on Sunday, the Ningbo Oriental Fortune Lake Tourism District Management Group, which is in charge of the zoo, issued a statement on its Weibo account saying that the dead man, surnamed Zhang, and a friend, surnamed Li, had not bought entrance tickets.