A 50-year-old man was mauled to death by two Royal Bengal Tigers in Guwahati Zoo on Wednesday while he was trying to take photographs of the two animals close to their cage, a zoo official said.
Jyoti Prakash Bezbarua, father of two, had jumped over a protective barricade and was attacked by the big cats after he put an arm very close to the cage bars in his over zealous attempt to take close-up photographs of the rare Royal Bengal Tigers.
"The person crossed over a barricade and went near an iron cage to take photographs using his cell phone," Narayan Mahanta, warden of the Guwahati city zoo in Assam, said.
"There were two tigers and one of them pounced on him and tore apart his hand. The other tiger also attacked him," the warden said.
The man, who was at the zoo with his wife and children, bled to death after the tigers tore off his left arm despite attempts by bystanders to save him.
He was declared dead on arrival at hospital. "It was an unfortunate accident," said Mahanta.
The deceased and his family had come to visit the zoo from Sivasagar in upper Assam.
In another incident, state zoo officials tranquilised a leopard at Kahilipara, Guwahati, on Wednesday after the leopard was reported to have been roaming around in the area.
This was the fourth leopard to be captured in Guwahati city in this month.