Around 30 people, many of them children, witnessed death

Dozens of children witnessed a giraffe being gored to death by an antelope at a Norwegian zoo on Easter Monday.

Melvin the giraffe had got his head stuck in a fence when he was attacked by an eland antelope walking in the same enclosure at Kristiansand zoo, around 200 miles south of Oslo.

Zoo vets rushed to the scene, but were unable to save the five-year-old giraffe, who died in front of shocked families.

Tragedy: Melvin the giraffe was attacked by an antelope walking in the same enclosure at Kristiansand Zoo in southern Norway

Around 30 people witnessed the unprovoked attack at Dyreparken Kristiansand on Monday.

Melvin was a firm favourite among young visitors, having been named in a readers' competition in a national newspaper when he was born at the zoo in 2010.

Witness Øivind Hansen, who was visiting the zoo with his family and photographed the event said even his 23-year-old daughter had come home crying after the incident.

'It was very traumatic. People were crying everywhere,' he told Verdens Gang.

Melvin had gotten his horns stuck in the enclosure's fence when suddenly the eland, the second largest antelope in the world, suddenly attacked.

Deadly attack: The large eland antelope gored five-year-old Melvin to death in an unprovoked attack after giraffe had gotten his head stuck in the enclosure's fence

Horrible scenes: Around 30 people, many of them children, witnessed Melvin, who was born at the zoo in 2010 and named in a local newspaper competition, die in the enclosure

'He was panicking and tugged and tore to free himself, and then came a rather large animal with sharp horns and ran right into him,' Mr Hansen adds.

'It is incredibly sad,' Dyreparken's chief executive told Dagbladet.no.

'He was alive when our veterinarian came to the scene, but died while he tried to save him.'

'Melvin was gored right near his lungs and heart, and the injuries were so serious that they killed him,' veterinarian Rolf Arne Ølberg, who was called to the scene, said.