Shanghai zookeeper mauled to death by Tiger

A keeper at Shanghai's zoo was mauled to death by a rare South China tiger on Tuesday after entering its enclosure to clean the zoo, said colleagues of the deceased.

In a brief statement on its Twitter-like microblog, the zoo said investigators were looking into the cause of the incident, but offered no other details.

State media reports identified the victim as a 56-year-old man surnamed Zhou. They cited unidentified colleagues as saying the man entered the tiger enclosure to clean and "did not come out again."

The animal involved was identified as a highly endangered South China tiger, considered effectively extinct in the wild after decades of being hunted as a pest.

Built on a former golf course, Shanghai's zoo is one of China's largest and most popular urban animal parks.