WHITE INDIAN TIGER KILLS STUDENT IN DELHI ZOO

THE WHITE TIGER IN DELHI ZOO

A white tiger has attacked and killed an Indian student at Delhi zoo, officials and witnesses say.

Zoo manager Riaz Khan said the young man "leapt over the railing into the tiger enclosure". Initial reports described him as a schoolboy.

Television pictures showed the student crouching against a wall while the tiger stood near him.

An eyewitness said he was leaning over the barricade which was "very low" and may have fallen inside the enclosure.

"Around 1.30 pm, we were in the reptiles area when we heard loud screams," eyewitness Himanshu told CNN-IBN news channel.

"I ran to the tiger enclosure where we saw that a white tiger had caught the student by his neck and he was writhing in pain. Some children threw small sticks and stones at the tiger.

"He suffered for the next 10-15 minutes but nobody helped him."

Himanshu said the police "came very quickly", but could not save him.

White tigers are a rare variant of the customary orange Bengal sub-species and and owe their colour to a recessive gene.

Considered an endangered species, they are found in south and east Asia, particularly India.

Today, they are found exclusively in captive programmes where the limited numbers are interbred to maintain the distinctive fur colour.

A number of the white tigers found in zoos have health issues, such as eyesight problems and some deformities.

The last known free-ranging white tiger is known to have been shot in 1958, before which sporadic sightings in the wild were made in India.