Visitor spotted dead zoo keeper in tiger's enclosure, inquest hears

A keeper mauled to death by a tiger at a zoo in Cambridgeshire was spotted by a visitor in the public viewing area who raised the alarm, an inquest has heard.

Rosa King, 33, was cleaning the windows of the tiger enclosure when she was attacked by a Malayan male called Cicip at Hamerton Zoo Park.

She died at the scene on May 29 2017, Monday's inquest in Huntingdon was told.

Nicholas Moss, Cambridgeshire's assistant coroner, said that immediately after the attack two gates and a metal vertical slide, designed to ensure staff and tigers were not in the paddock at the same time, were found to have been open.

Ms King, who was working alone, entered the enclosure shortly before the zoo opened to the public at 10am.

The male tiger Cicip "would tend to urinate on the windows during the day so they need to be cleaned so the public have a good view", Mr Moss said.

Frank York, a visitor to the zoo, saw her body from the viewing area and raised the alarm. Keepers fetched the zoo's tranquiliser gun, while armed firearms officers and paramedics attended.

Neither the tranquiliser nor police firearms were used.

Mr Moss said keepers "were able to entice Cicip back into his run and theslide was closed behind him to make the area safe again".

He added: "It had been apparent from as soon as Rosa was seen that she had died."

Her death was formally pronounced at 11.46am, with her many injuries including lacerations and puncture wounds.

Mr Moss said "immediately after the attack" the slide intended to separatethe main paddock from a run leading to the tiger house was found to be in the open position.

The slide was raised and lowered by wires attached to a system of pulleys.The two gates used by keepers to access the paddock, one wooden and one metal, were also both open, Mr Moss said.

"We're going to need to explore how that happened and what the reason for that was," he said.

The inquest will hear evidence about the system used to ensure staff could not enter the paddock when tigers were present and whether that system "allowed protection against human error by the zookeeper who was in the tiger area", Mr Moss said.

The inquest heard Ms King worked 45 hours a week during the summer months and also worked some overtime.

Her parents Peter and Andrea King listened to coroner Mr Moss open the inquest on Monday.

Mrs King, wiping tears from her eyes, said in evidence it was clear from theage of two that her daughter would end up working with animals.

She described her as "knowledgeable about all the animals in her care",adding: "She followed her dreams and it wasn't very often you wouldn't see her with a smile on her face."

Ms King, who worked at the zoo for 13 years, did not express concerns about working conditions, her mother said.

"She thought two people working together wasn't as safe as it would be easier to become complacent," she said.

Zoo founder Andrew Swales said the park opened in 1990 and its first tigersarrived in 2001.

He said "everybody" at the zoo, including Ms King, helped design the newtiger enclosure between 2014 and 2016.

Mr Swales said the onus was always on staff to check an area before entering it.

The hearing, listed for two weeks, continues.