A Siberian tiger escaped from its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas day, killing one visitor and mauling two others before being shot dead by police, authorities said. The attack was lamented as "tragic" by city officials and came a year after the same female tiger, named Tatiana, peeled the flesh from a zookeeper's arm during a public feeding.
Police expect it to take days to clarify what happened, but it appears the 300-pound (136-kilogram) tiger escaped from its enclosure at the zoo about closing time, which was 5:00 pm local time (0100 GMT Wednesday).
The zoo's tigers are kept in an "open grotto," not a cage, separated from the public area by a moat 18 feet (5.5-meters) wide and 20 feet (6.1-meters) deep and a wall taller than 20 feet, said animal care director Robert Jenkins. "In this case there was no way out through the door," Jenkins told news reporters at the zoo.