A tiger on the loose among garden allotments. Panicked residents summoning armed police ill-equipped to deal with a dangerous predator. And, behind it all, Germany\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201cTiger Queen\u201d and her private menagerie.<\/p>\n
In startling scenes over the weekend in the eastern town of Schkeuditz, near Leipzig airport, the mix proved fatal for a big cat named Sandokan and left a keeper seriously injured.<\/p>\n
On Sunday afternoon, a warm spring day when many hobby gardeners were tending to their flower beds, the tiger attacked a 72-year-old man at an enclosure kept by the former tamer Carmen Zander and escaped.<\/p>\n
A banner hangs outside Zander\u2019s enclosure in Schkeuditz. Photograph: Heiko Rebsch\/dpa Picture Alliance GmbH\/Avalon<\/p>\n
Officers alerted to the scene by panicked neighbours tracked the animal down to a nearby allotment complex and killed it about 30 minutes after it had escaped \u201cto prevent danger to those present\u201d, police said.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said officers climbed on to the roof of a car and fired three shots at the tiger, which had been lying just a few metres from a small fence bordering the gardens.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur paradise was shattered,\u201d Silvia Kaempf, 68, who has a shed in the neighbouring allotment association, told local media.<\/p>\n
The keeper, who police said had been in the tiger enclosure \u201cwith permission\u201d, is reported to still be in hospital with severe scratches and bites and is unable to answer investigators\u2019 questions.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said the police did not have a veterinarian or a stun gun at their disposal at the time of the escape, leaving only lethal means to restore public order. Prosecutors said no inquiry was planned against the officers who killed the animal.<\/p>\n
But the regional public prosecutor\u2019s office said it had opened an investigation into suspected negligent bodily harm against Zander, 52, over possible breaches of safety protocols.<\/p>\n
The mayor of the D\u00f6lzig district where Zander lives with the tigers, Thomas Druskat, called for the immediate removal of the enclosure. \u201cIt\u2019s unthinkable what might have happened if other people had been injured,\u201d he told the newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung.<\/p>\n
Zander, who was not present at the time of the attack, reportedly worked for 15 years as a circus tiger tamer but stopped touring about three years ago. She expressed her shock over the week\u2019s events, and avowed her love for her tigers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually every animal trainer\u2019s worst nightmare,\u201d she told the public broadcaster MDR in reference to the attack and its consequences, saying she was also worried about her injured colleague.<\/p>\n
Zander relies on donations and the help of friends to care for the tigers. Photograph: Action Press\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n