A pride of lions mauled a zookeeper to death at one of Europe's largest big-cat parks on Wednesday after a door inside their enclosure was left unlocked, according to investigators.
The tragic incident took place on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the Taigan safari park on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, one of the largest breeding grounds for lions in Europe and home to around 60 of the wild cats.
"A criminal case has been opened over the death of an employee at the Taigan lion park as a result of a predator attack," the Moscow-installed Investigative Committee of Crimea and Sevastopol said in a statement.
Zookeeper was Cleaning the Cage Without Shutting the Bolt of the Door That Kept the Lions Away
The zookeeper, identified as 54-year-old Leokadiya Perevalova, who had worked at the park for almost 17 years died after she "went to clean a cage with three lions, without shutting the bolt of a door between two rooms of the enclosure", investigators said.
The park's owner Oleg Zubkov identified the victim as chief zookeeper Leokadia Perevalova, calling the incident a "tragic" mistake. "It is unclear how and why this happened, as the animals could not have done such a thing on their own, and apparently there were no people around," he said in a statement on his blog.
Perevalova was 'Torn to Pieces'
"The employees who discovered the body, unfortunately, could no longer provide any assistance, since she had simply been torn to pieces," he said. On his Telegram channel, Zubkov praised Perevalova as a "valuable employee" who was the "soul of our park", adding that "the human factor of forgetfulness played a role."
