SAN FRANCISCO — A tiger escaped from its pen at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day, killing one man and injuring two others before police shot the cat dead, police said.
The three men were all in their 20s; they were together and were not zoo employees, San Francisco Police spokesman Steve Mannina said. They were attacked just after the 5 p.m. closing time Tuesday outside the Terrace Cafe, on the east end of the 1,000-acre zoo grounds near Ocean Beach.
It was unclear how the tiger escaped or how long it was on the loose. The Siberian tiger, named Tatiana, was the same cat that attacked a zookeeper last December during a regular public feeding, according to the zoo’s director of animal care and conservation.
The zoo, which is open 365 days a year, was evacuated immediately after the attack was reported.
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Police arrived on the scene to find the tiger on top of its victim. As officers approached, it moved toward them, and they opened fire with handguns, killing the tiger, Mannina said.
The two who were injured were in critical but stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ken Smith said. A call to the supervising nurse at San Francisco General was not immediately returned.
"This is a tragic event for San Francisco,” Smith said. "We pride ourselves in our zoo, and we pride ourselves in tourists coming and looking at our city.”
Authorities did not believe there were any other people attacked, but because it was dark they could not be certain. Investigators remained on the scene and Smith said a thorough sweep of the grounds would be conducted in the morning.
Officials at first worried that four tigers had escaped, but they soon learned that only one had escaped its pen, according to Mannina.
Tatiana is one of two Siberian tigers in the zoo’s collections, according to its Web site. Last December, the 350-pound animal reached through the cage’s iron bars and badly lacerated the zookeeper’s arm. The zoo’s Lion House was temporarily closed during an investigation.
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