Man jumps off Bronx Zoo train, mauled by tiger

7:38 PM, Sep 21, 2012   |    comments
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NEW YORK -- Authorities say a visitor at the Bronx Zoo leaped from an elevated monorail train and plummeted into an exhibit, where he was mauled by a tiger.

New York City police say the man suffered puncture wounds to his back from the mauling. They say he also has a broken ankle and a broken arm.

Police initially had said the man lost a leg. Zoo director Jim Breheny says the mauling happened Friday afternoon in the Wild Asia exhibit, where a train takes visitors over a tiger enclosure.

He says the man leaped from the train and cleared a perimeter fence.

Workers used a fire extinguisher to back the tiger off. The man then rolled under a wire to safety. Police say the 25-year-old man has been hospitalized in critical condition.

The Associated Press