Tiger death
zoo owner tells of rifle shot

Sarah McClay, 24, was pounced on in the keeper’s corridor of the tiger house at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Cumbria before she was dragged by the back of the neck into a den and then to an outside enclosure.

David Gill, who designed the tiger house and set up the park in Dalton-in-Furness from scratch, told a inquest jury how he ran to the scene when he heard on the park radio that male Sumatran tiger Padang “had got Sarah”.

Mr Gill struggled to find a vantage point with a clear shot.

A member of staff finally alerted him to a position by a penguin walkway but when he ran there and took a shot the animal ran off back into its enclosure.

The hearing continues today.