Circus Tiger Mauls Girl To Death: 8-Year-Old Brutally Killed By Performing Tiger [Video]

A circus tiger mauls a girl to death after she slipped into the animal’s enclosure. The large cat brutally killed the 8-year-old girl once she got through the bars so she could be near the animals.

Opposing Views reports that the incident happened at Leheledu Amusement Park in China’s Chongqing Municipality. The girl was visiting family and all of them stopped by to check out the circus. When Juan Niu was attacked, it occurred in the temporary holding pen area for the animals. Daily Mail reveals that the girl “unknowingly” slipped into the enclosure after sneaking away from her relatives. The tiger immediately pounced on the young girl and severely mauled her in front of onlookers. She was promptly pulled out of the cage by a group of animal trainers. When she arrived at the hospital, she was pronounced dead.

Park spokesman Manchu Hung says Niu’s family will be compensated and that security will be tighter after this tragedy.

“Nothing terrible like this has ever happened before and we take the safety of our visitors very seriously. We will pay all compensation necessary to the family and will make sure it’s not possible for anything similar to ever happen again.”

At first the mauling tragedy wasn’t picked up by news but when rumors escalated, the park decided to address the situation.

In February 2013, a circus trainer was mauled and killed by a Bengal Tiger. Alexander Crispin Suarez, 35, was bit several times on the neck and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. He was working with a tiger in front of children and adults when the mauling occurred. IB Times reports that Suarez was killed at the Hermanos Suarez Circus in the town of Sonora, Etchojoa, Mexico.

Video footage showed Suarez ” jogging in circles around the tiger and another large cat in an attempt to make the two animals turn in circles on a large dais,” the report indicates. In the second circle turn, one of the tigers jumped the trainer out of the blue and mauled him to death.

Earlier this year the Inquisitr wrote an article about a teacher in Peru getting mauled by a lion when her classroom took a field trip to see animals at the zoo. She volunteered to show her pupils that the animals weren’t dangerous, but she proved the opposite in that case. Luckily she didn’t die, but she was tossed around like a rag doll.

[Image via World Wildlife Federation]