Yorkshire Wildlife Park will remain closed today as investigations continue into the death of a man attacked by a tiger.

Emergency services were called at around 1.30pm on Saturday after a man in his early 20s entered the tiger enclosure and was mauled by the animal.

It’s believed that a woman ‘desperately’ tried to stop him from leaping over the viewing platform and ‘pull him back’.

Sadly, her efforts weren’t ‘strong enough’, and he overpowered her to jump into the enclosure in view of the mother’s two children.

South Yorkshire Police later confirmed that, despite the efforts of responders, he had been pronounced dead at the scene and that his family had been informed.

Having been evacuated, the park was initially closed for the weekend and was due to reopen today, a decision that has since been revised.

In a message sent to ticketholders this morning, the park said: ‘Due to the serious incident that occurred at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Saturday, the 10th of October, unfortunately the park remains closed for the whole of Monday, the 12th October.

‘Anyone with a booking for this date will be contacted within the next five working days with details of how to reschedule your booking.

‘We apologise for the late notice and any inconvenience caused.’

A subsequent statement posted publicly read: ‘Due to the events over the weekend, the park will remain closed today.

‘Thank you for your understanding.’

Yesterday, park organisers responded to concerns about Altai, the five-year-old Amur tiger involved in the fatal incident, and confirmed he is ‘safe and well’.

Altai, one of two endangered Amur tigers at the Doncaster park, will not be euthanised.

A statement posted on social media read: ‘We would like to thank everyone who has expressed their concern following yesterday’s tragic incident. Our thoughts and heartfelt sympathies remain with the family and loved ones of the man who sadly lost his life.

‘The park will be closed while the staff team who were deeply affected by events receive specialist support. Many, many people have contacted us about Altai, the tiger.

‘We can reassure everyone that he is safe and well and will not be euthanised as a result of this incident.’

When he arrived at the park from Norway, Altai was said to be ‘very calm and receptive’. He has been described as a tiger who ‘loves his training, eating, and especially enjoys playing in the water outside’.

Videos shared online at the weekend showed Altai grabbing the man while he shouted for him to stop. Other visitors yelled out to try to distract the tiger, but to no avail, while distraction shots fired by rangers eventually got Altai to retreat.

After being dragged along the grass by the big cat, the man was seen holding up his little finger – a gesture resembling the word ‘bad’ in Makaton, a form of sign language that combines symbols, signs, and speech to allow people to communicate.

Mere moments prior, the supposedly ‘agitated’ man asked another visitor to take a photo of him with the tiger, as heard in videos taken by other members of the public.

‘Excuse me, can you grab a shot of myself with the tiger?’, he requested, asking for ‘one more’ snap three times before saying, ‘Thank you, lady.’

Speaking afterwards, the woman who took his photos revealed he was ‘completely alone’.

Echoing reports that the man was dancing to ‘psych himself up’ before climbing over the fence, Del Taylor told The Sun: ‘At first he was dancing on the bridge overlooking the enclosure. He ended up standing next to me.

‘My partner was recording the tiger, and you can hear me having this interaction.

‘You can hear him asking for a photo. I took a couple of him with his back towards the enclosure.

‘I positioned the camera so I could get Altai in it with him.’

It’s claimed he was ‘grabbed by the throat’ by the tiger almost immediately after climbing over a metre-high viewing barrier and dropping into the enclosure, with other horrified onlookers ‘seeing blood’.

Scarlet Hogan added to The Telegraph: ‘We tracked the tiger’s eyes, and we saw him in the corner just walking across the enclosure.

‘The tiger got alerted. He went into stalk mode. The tiger came flying off the ledge and approached him.’

She explained: ‘The man started praying to the tiger, bowing down to it – the tiger looked a bit confused. Up until he got attacked, it was like he was in a trance, not in reality at all.’

Calling it ‘the strangest thing’ to watch, she said the man ‘had arms wide open, ready for the tiger to attack him’ while she and her boyfriend, Anthony Hunt, ‘stood there, frozen’.

‘The last thing we saw was the tiger’s jaw on his neck.’

In the aftermath of the horrific events, one resident has criticised the reaction and how people ‘seem to care more about the tiger’.

As she went to place flowers at the park’s entrance, Angela Seivewright told PA: ‘I believe that the person who was killed had additional needs.

‘And, when I looked at social media over the weekend, when I said I hoped the person was OK, I got really bullied a lot – saying that he deserved to die.’

She added: ‘I have a special needs child, and I think he was doing sign language to the tiger.

‘So, I just felt it was really unfair that people were almost wishing him to die as opposed to not wanting anybody to be hurt.

‘My daughter goes to school next door, and we live around the corner. And I just thought there would be way more flowers here.’

While she has a season ticket for the park, she said she ‘doesn’t know’ if she will support it again.

‘I just don’t know if they took every opportunity to save him, his life, as opposed to maybe doing something to the tiger.’

Police are currently looking into how the man was able to enter the Land of the Tigers pen.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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