A tiger attacked three zookeepers at a safari park north of Tokyo on Wednesday, with one staff member having her hand bitten off, police and other sources said.
The police are investigating if there were any safety flaws at Nasu Safari Park in Tochigi Prefecture after its operator said it had failed to confirm that the tiger was in its fenced enclosure the previous day.
Of the three zookeepers, all in their 20s, a second woman was bitten on several parts of her body by the 10-year old male Bengal tiger, which is around 2 meters in length and weighs 150 kilograms, the police said. The third victim, a male zookeeper, sustained an injury to the back of his head.