A man died Saturday after entering a tiger enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park and being attacked by one of the big cats, police said.
According to South Yorkshire Police, they were informed around 1:35 p.m. that a man had breached the tiger enclosure at the park, a popular family attraction near Doncaster, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of London.
“The tiger subsequently attacked the man, resulting in serious injury,” the police said. Emergency personnel tried to save the man’s life, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The man’s family is aware and is being supported by specialist officers,” the police said.
Police have not disclosed the man’s name. No one has yet explained why the man entered the enclosure or how he managed to bypass the barriers.
The Yorkshire Ambulance Service said it was called at 1:33 p.m. and sent two land ambulances, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and a doctor.
The park was evacuated and will remain closed on Sunday while the investigations are underway.
“We are deeply saddened by today’s tragic incident,” the park said in a Saturday evening statement. It expressed condolences to the man’s family and loved ones and asked for respect for their privacy.
Earlier, the park said that its emergency protocols were activated right away and that it is “working closely with the authorities to ascertain exactly what happened.”
The police also commented on the rumors about the animal. “The tiger was uninjured and remained in the enclosure following the incident,” they said, adding that there was no wider danger to the public.
According to witnesses, the agitated man entered the enclosure, and there were reports of shots heard shortly before visitors were evacuated from the park. Some sources claim that gas canisters were fired to drive the tiger away from the man, but the police have not confirmed this information.
Black screens were set up around the enclosure after the incident. A video of the mauling quickly spread on social networks, and the police urged people not to share it.
Tia Hanson, visiting the park with a friend, remembered how park staff closed a walkway between the tiger enclosure and the exit around 2 p.m.
“There was an air ambulance and police everywhere. We’ve all been made to leave,” she said.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Park opened in 2009, and its Land of the Tiger exhibit opened in 2011. The exhibit occupies two acres as a complex of reserves and has endangered Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers.
The tigress Tschuna has lived at the park since 2013. A young male tiger came to the park from Norway in March 2025. Authorities have not disclosed which tiger was involved in Saturday’s attack.
Amur tigers are one of the largest cats in the world, and males usually weigh about 350 to 420 pounds (160 to 190 kilograms).
This death is another sad example of fatal attacks on people by big cats in captivity. In 2017, a keeper was killed at Hamerton Zoo Park in Cambridgeshire after a tiger got access to her enclosure. In 2013, Sarah McClay, 24, a keeper at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Cumbria, died following an attack by a Sumatran tiger.
Fatal attacks on visitors also occurred. In 2007, a tiger escaped from its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo and killed a man, and in 2014, a young man died after entering the enclosure of a white tiger at the New Delhi zoo.
After the incident in New Delhi, the tiger conservationist Belinda Wright commented, “The tiger was just being a tiger.”
The investigation of Saturday’s death is ongoing.
