An 8-year-old girl was attacked by at least one wolf at a wildlife park in Germany, leaving her fighting for her life, police said. The incident occurred during a special event for children at Johannismühle Wildlife Park, south of Berlin.
Two other children were inside the Arctic wolf enclosure when the attack happened. A zookeeper intervened to prevent the two other girls from being attacked.
Incident Details
The incident occurred while the wolves were being given water, police said. The child sustained a severe head injury and was airlifted to a trauma centre in Marzahn.
The attack took place 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.
Investigation and Background
In a statement, police said that the "exact circumstances of the incident are under police investigation, which is ongoing".
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. 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 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.
