Rosa King was inside enclosure when she was attacked at Cambridgeshire zoo

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A keeper mauled to death by a tiger at a zoo was discovered by a visitor in the public viewing area who raised the alarm, an inquest has heard.

Rosa King, 33, was cleaning the windows of the tiger enclosure when she was attacked by a male Malayan tiger called Cicip at Hamerton zoo park in Cambridgeshire.

She died at the scene on 29 May 2017, Monday’s inquest in Huntingdon was told.

Nicholas Moss, Cambridgeshire’s assistant coroner, said that immediately after the attack two gates and a metal vertical slide, designed to ensure staff and tigers were not in the paddock at the same time, were found to be open.

King, who was working alone, entered the enclosure shortly before the zoo opened to the public at 10am. Cicip “would tend to urinate on the windows during the day so they need to be cleaned so the public have a good view”, Moss said.

Frank York, a visitor to the zoo, saw her body from the viewing area and raised the alarm. Keepers fetched the zoo’s tranquiliser gun, while armed firearms officers and paramedics attended. Neither the tranquiliser nor police firearms were used.

Moss said keepers “were able to entice Cicip back into his run and the slide was closed behind him to make the area safe again”. He added: “It had been apparent from as soon as Rosa was seen that she had died.”

Her death was formally pronounced at 11.46am. Her injuries included lacerations and puncture wounds.

Moss said that immediately after the attack the slide intended to separate the main paddock from a run leading to the tiger house had been found to be in the open position.

The slide was raised and lowered by wires attached to a system of pulleys.

The two gates used by keepers to access the paddock, one wooden and one metal, were also both open, Moss said. “We’re going to need to explore how that happened and what the reason for that was,” he said.

Moss said a police investigation had “suggested there was not any mechanical fault with the gates and slides”.

The inquest will hear evidence about the system used to ensure staff could not enter the paddock when tigers were present and whether that system “allowed protection against human error by the zookeeper who was in the tiger area”, Moss said.

The inquest heard King worked 45 hours a week during the summer months and also worked overtime.

Her parents, Peter and Andrea King, listened to the coroner open the inquest on Monday.

Andrea King said in evidence it had been clear from the age of two that her daughter would end up working with animals. She described her as “knowledgeable about all the animals in her care”, adding: “She followed her dreams and it wasn’t very often you wouldn’t see her with a smile on her face.”

King, who worked at the zoo for 13 years, did not express concerns about working conditions, her mother said. “She thought two people working together wasn’t as safe as it would be easier to become complacent,” she said.

The hearing, expected to last for two weeks, continues.