New Delhi: A 50-year-old man was mauled by two royal Bengal tigers when he went too close to the tigers' enclosure to click pictures in Assam State Zoo, Sivsanagar on Thursday.
First a tigress, Divya, seized the victim's hand and soon another tiger, Govardhan, locked his jaws on the hand. The victim, Joyprakash Bezbaruah, desperately tried to free himself but couldn't.
The two tigers severed Bezbarua's arms from his shoulder within a few seconds.
Zoo officials tried to push the animals away with sticks. Bezberuah's wife, son and dozens of horrified visitors watched helplessly as he finally collapsed outside the enclosure wall.
He succumbed to the injuries at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital later. Earlier a zoo keeper had repeatedly cautioned him to move behind the barrier but he had not heeded the warning.
Zoo divisional forest officer Narayan Mahanta said Bezbarua had crossed the line outside the enclosure for tigers from where visitors see the animals at Assam State Zoo.
He gave a slip to the guards on duty, who had stopped him from venturing near the barrier, and crossed to reach the last level from where the iron grills start to take photographs of tigers basking in the sun, he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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