Man seriously injured Police shoot escaped tiger near Leipzig

A tiger escapes from a private enclosure near Leipzig and seriously injures a man. The police take extreme measures to avert any further danger.

DPA

17.05.2026, 18:12

dpa

This article was last updated at 18:12.

Tiger alarm near Leipzig: Police in Schkeuditz (North Saxony) have shot and killed an escaped tiger. The animal had escaped from a private enclosure, according to a police spokeswoman. A 73-year-old man was seriously injured. He was taken to hospital for treatment. The police were on the scene with a large contingent. There was no longer any danger to the public, they said in the afternoon.

At around 12.50 p.m., the police received an emergency call that a tiger had escaped, reported police spokeswoman Susanne Lübcke. "The tiger had left its enclosure. It was then found by police officers in a garden area." In order to eliminate any danger to the public, the tiger was shot by emergency services.

Heavily armed police officers on the scene

The police were on the scene with numerous, sometimes heavily armed officers. As it was a full-grown tiger, long guns were also used, said the spokeswoman. No other animals escaped.

In the Dölzig district of Schkeuditz, a tiger trainer keeps big cats in an industrial estate - eight tigers are now said to still live there. The tamer initially did not respond to an inquiry.

"The enclosure has to go"

Following the incident, the head of Dölzig, Thomas Druskat, called for consequences. "The enclosure has to go," the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper quoted him as saying. "You can't even think about it if other people had also come to harm." He called for the animals to be transferred to a different type of enclosure.

According to the police, the seriously injured man was a helper of sorts. He was in the enclosure for a legitimate reason, the spokeswoman said. The police are now investigating how it was possible for the tiger to escape. It was initially unclear whether this would lead to an investigation into a criminal offense.

Residents horrified by the escape

People living near the tiger enclosure reacted with horror to the incident. She finds it terrible and worrying that something like this could happen, said Stefanie Kästner. She owns a horse at a riding stables opposite the tiger cages. Of course, she doesn't know the safety concept. "But as a layperson, I would say that it's not the right place to keep tigers in the area with the local people, the residents and the riding stables."

One man, who says he used to be friends with the tamer and describes himself as a "tiger fan", said that he does not consider the animals' accommodation to be species-appropriate. "The animals are housed far too cramped, in far too small a space," he said. He knows other tamers who have now given their tigers to zoos or theme parks "without exception".

There was a lion outbreak at Leipzig Zoo in 2016

The outbreak brought back memories of another dramatic case in Leipzig ten years ago. In September 2016, two lions broke out of their enclosure at the city's zoo. They jumped over a moat and possibly swam through it - this remained unclear because no one witnessed the escape. One animal was pushed back, the other was shot. The moat at Leipzig Zoo's lion enclosure was then significantly widened.