A tiger attacked and killed a female keeper at Cologne zoo today before being shot dead, a zoo spokesman said.
The gate of the tiger's enclosure had not been properly shut, allowing the big cat to jump on the woman and maul and bite her. She later died of her wounds in hospital.
The director of the zoo himself, Theo Pagel, shot the tiger dead, the spokesman added. Police briefly cleared the area after the incident but the zoo later reopened for visitors.
Cologne zoo in western Germany, founded in 1860, is one of the oldest and best-known in the country and is home to some 10,000 animals from 700 species.