A 19-year-old Russian fisherman lost his arm when a Siberian tiger burst into his cabin during a fishing expedition in the taiga in 2023. Sergey Kyalundzyuga and his 23-year-old cousin Alexander Sigde were on the trip when the animal smashed through the glass and attacked.
Attack in the night
Settling down for the night in a winter cabin, Sergey detected an unusual sound outside. "Did you hear that?" he asked his cousin, who was lying on the bed. Sergey pulled back the curtain "and there it was, this huge head."
Peering out of the window, he received the shock of his life as the tiger burst through the cabin door. His cousin Alexander was thrown to the ground and by the time he had retrieved his rifle and shot the animal, it had severed Sergey's arm, reports the Daily Star.
Aftermath and rescue
Sergey said: "I was lucky I managed to put my arm up. It bit into my shoulder - it was going for my neck - and clawed me across the back. Alexander ran out, grabbed the rifle hanging by the door, and shot the tiger point blank in the head."
Reacting swiftly, Alexander fastened a tourniquet around Sergey's upper arm and went to locate their uncle, Mikhail, who was lodging in a nearby hut. Mikhail helped in carrying Sergey to his cabin, where the family managed to find phone reception.
With his snowmobile having broken down in the forest, Mikhail was forced to ski nearly 45 kilometres to raise the alarm. Sergey was airlifted to a hospital in Khabarovsk.
Legal consequences
At this point he had multiple broken ribs and a collapsed lung and had lost two litres of blood. He also had an infected wound where he lost the arm.
Police accused Alexander of provoking the assault by discharging bullets into the forest, and in May 2025, an appeals court found him guilty of killing an endangered species. This followed Vladimir Putin adopting tiger conservation as one of his cherished causes.
Life after the attack
Sergey Kyalundzyuga used to tuck his empty left sleeve so no one could see he was missing an arm, but maintains a positive outlook regarding his missing limb and even makes light of it.
Sergey told Meduza he now lives in Luchegorsk, a coastal village in Russia's far-eastern Primorsky Krai, to "get away from everyone". Sergey revealed this was also his intention when he went fishing with his cousin. His father had lost his life the previous year in a tree-felling accident.
He said: "I thought I'd find some peace in the taiga, make some money from the fish, and pull myself together." At the time, Sergey was studying welding at college and working part-time, as he needed to provide for his two younger sisters, younger brother, and disabled mother.
Sergey explained he fled from a journalist because "my lawyer banned me from talking to the press." He acknowledged the attack continues to affect him, but added: "But on the other hand if it hadn't been me, someone else might have died."
He added: "When I opened my eyes, I was already on a stretcher in the hospital. Photographers and journalists were flashing lights right in my face - it was awful. I blacked out again and came to when my mom walked in. I could barely sit up, and that's when I realized my arm was gone. I cried for a week straight."
