Two other children where inside the enclosure when a little girl was mauled at a wildlife park in Germany, leaving her fighting for her life, police said. The 8-year-old child was attacked by at least one wolf during a special event for children at the Johannismühle Wildlife Park south of Berlin. A zookeeper intervened to prevent two other girls inside the Arctic wolf enclosure from being attacked. The incident occurred while the wolves were being given water, police also said.
The child has reportedly sustained a severe head injury and was airlifted to a trauma centre in Marzahn. It is believed the children may have been participating in a programme where visitors can pretend to be zookeepers, which allows them to feed animals.
The attack occurred before the park opened at 10am local time (9am GMT) on Wednesday. The wildlife park has been temporarily closed and is set to reopen on November 2, according to its website.
In a statement, police said that the “exact circumstances of the incident are under police investigation, which is ongoing”. Johannismühle, located around 28 miles from Berlin, offers small group tours and “exclusive” visits, with the opportunity to “feed wolves” mentioned on its site.
This comes after, on Tuesday, a zookeeper died after being savagely mauled by a leopard on Saturday at the Beekse Bergen safari park in the Netherlands. The woman, whose name has been withheld in accordance with Dutch privacy law, was caring for two male Persian leopards when she was attacked.
According to local outlet Brabants Dagblad, the keeper alerted colleagues to the terrifying incident over a walkie-talkie, with one colleague reportedly hearing her screams.
Head of animal care at the zoo Martin van Hees, said she had worked at the zoo for several years.
