A TIGER mauled its female keeper to death yesterday — just yards from zoo visitors — after escaping from its enclosure.
The male big cat slipped through a poorly secured gate to attack the woman, 43, in a storage area.
It was shot dead by zoo chief Theo Pagel before it could reach any areas open to the public.
Shaken Mr Pagel said: “This is the darkest day of my life.” Referring to the unsecured gate, he confirmed: “It appears it was a question of inadvertence.”
Cops said it was unlikely visitors saw the midday horror at the zoo in Cologne, Germany — founded in 1860 and one of the country’s oldest. They added: “It appears the gate wasn’t properly shut.”
The attraction was briefly evacuated and later reopened to visitors. But a planned late-night opening was scrapped.
The animal, a four-year-old Siberian tiger called Altai, was previously housed at an unidentified centre in the UK.
Last November it fathered three cubs by a seven-year-old Siberian tigress.
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