A tiger mauled its handler at a popular theme park on Australia’s Gold Coast, leaving the experienced worker in hospital with “severe lacerations and puncture wounds” to his arm.
The unnamed driver, 47, was working with one of Dreamworld’s nine tigers when, according to the Queensland Ambulance Service, she was attacked just before 9am on Monday local time.
Park staff were able to restrain the tiger before paramedics arrived.
“The patient had obviously suffered some serious cuts and puncture wounds from the animal,” Queensland Ambulance Service acting district director Justin Payne told reporters.
“Thankfully by the time they arrived the bleeding had been managed very well by the first aid providers there at Dreamworld which was great to see,” Payne said.
The handler “was quite pale and unwell”, but is now in a stable condition at Gold Coast University Hospital, he added.
In a statement, Dreamworld said Monday’s attack was an “isolated and rare incident” and that the company’s “immediate focus is on the team member’s support.”
Dreamworld declined to answer further questions about the tiger’s well-being.
The park was open to the public on Monday.
Dreamworld’s Tiger Island exhibit is billed as an “interactive” experience where visitors “can get so close you can smell the breath of a tiger.”
The park’s website advertises the opportunity for visitors to feed some of its nine Bengal and Sumatran tigers.
Monday’s attack is not the first time a tiger has injured staff at Dreamworld. In 2011, a 160-pound Bengal tiger named Keto bit two handlers in two separate incidents, according to local media reports at the time.
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