Kangaroo kills 77-year-old Australian man in first fatal attack for 86 years
- The man was found by a relative with ‘serious injuries’ at a property in the sparsely populated southern town of Redmond in Western Australia
- He is thought to have been keeping the wild animal as a pet. Australian media reported that the last fatal kangaroo attack was believed to be in 1936
The man, who has not been identified, was found by a relative on Sunday afternoon with “serious injuries” at a property in the sparsely populated southern town of Redmond in Western Australia, police said.
“It is believed the man had been attacked by the kangaroo earlier in the day,” a state police spokesman said. An ambulance crew raced to the scene, but the man died there.
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“At the property there was a kangaroo that was preventing the ambulance crew from accessing the injured man,” the police spokesman said.
Police said they had to shoot and kill the animal, as it “was posing an ongoing threat to emergency responders”.
The kangaroo was believed to be a wild animal being kept by the man as a pet, police said.
Though the kangaroo species was not identified, the Great Southern region of Western Australia is home to the western grey.