18 December 2023 , 18:53
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A zookeeper in India was killed by a hippo after he entered its enclosure to clean it and was brutally mauled.
Suraj, 40, an employee at Lucknow Zoo in Uttar Pradesh, had entered the enclosure for usual cleaning duties when the mammal charged and killed him on the spot. Another employee Raju managed to escape from the cage but was injured and admitted to hospital, the Indian Express reports. The hippopotamus was supposed to be locked in a cage during regular enclosure maintenance, but the beast somehow escaped.
Suraj had worked at the zoo for about 12 years and had been trained in cleaning facilities and feeding animals. Lucknow Zoo director Aditi Sharma said the hippopotamus was immediately locked up and no other injuries were reported.
Lucknow Zoo where the incident happened (Google)The incident happened when the zoo was closed to the public and the hippo had been transferred to Lucknow from a zoo in Kanpur just a few weeks ago. Sharma promised a thorough investigation into the deadly incident, saying to the Hindustan Times: "If there is any mistake, it will be rectified. It would be part of the inquiry to find why the animal was not confined in a portion of the cage when the two employees entered."
In September, an enraged hippo started charging at its zoo keeper after he tried to break up its fight with another territorial bull in their enclosure. Heart-stopping footage too gruesome to publish showed the man, who had also entered to clean, scrambling out of the pen in a desperate bid to avoid a fatal attack at the Changsha Ecological Zoo in China's Hunan province.
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Amid the rush to run for his life, the zoo keeper slipped over on the wet concrete surface entrance. The hippo bared its huge teeth but the man managed to use his arms and feet to prevent the hungry animal from closing in on him.
Suraj is survived by his wife and two children, a son and a daughter.