Zoo to compensate man after tiger kills child

BEIJIN - A Chinese zoo will compensate a man whose daughter was mauled to death by a tiger while she was waiting to have her picture taken with it, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

Visitors pose for a picture with a tiger chained to a shelf at a park in Huaibei, East China's Anhui Province in this March 26, 2006 file photo.[newsphoto]

The six-year-old was preparing to be photographed with a tiger from a local circus last month when a camera flash startled the animal and it turned on the girl who was standing behind, "biting her head", the report said.

Kunming zoo, in China's southwest, will pay the father 340,000 yuan ($43,980), it added.

"Nothing can compensate for the loss of my daughter. I hope the government can ban dangerous circus performances in case more people are hurt," Xinhua quoted father Mo Jicai as saying.

In 2001, a female worker at the same zoo was also killed by a tiger.

And in January, a tiger at the Kunming Wildlife Park attacked another child, but zookeepers were able to open the animal's mouth and save the child, Xinhua said.