CAMBRIDGE, England (CNN) — A tiger killed a zookeeper in an enclosure at Hamerton Zoo Park in the hamlet of Steeple Gidding, near Cambridge, United Kingdom, according to the Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s Facebook page.
The zoo said in a Facebook post that the keeper’s death on Monday (May 29) “appears to have been a freak accident.” A full investigation is underway, the zoo said.
“At no point during the incident did any animals escape their enclosures, and at no point was public safety affected in any way,” the Facebook post said. “We are sorry but our staff are too distressed to speak directly to the media, as one of our colleagues was killed at Hamerton Zoo Park this morning.”
Neither police nor the zoo have released the zookeeper’s name or any of her biographical information.
Police, too, say the tiger never escaped its enclosure. The incident is not deemed suspicious, they say.
The zoo will be closed Tuesday.
The zoo and the police declined to comment on whether anyone had been injured during the incident, which happened about 11:15 a.m. (4:15 p.m. ET). Steeple Gidding is about 25 miles northwest of Cambridge.