See more of our coverage in your search results.
The UK zoo exhibit where a former child actor was mauled to death by a tiger has been reopened — with the killer big cat seen relaxing in his enclosure Friday.
Visitors packed into the “Land of Tigers” at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in northern England to see Siberian tiger Altai less than a week after killing William Chapman, the troubled 24-year-old who died Saturday after climbing two fences to get into the off-limits enclosure.
Altai was seen calmly lying on his stomach in his pen as staffers calmly answered visitors’ questions.
The exhibit had been closed since Saturday when Chapman hopped a pair of fences and approached the tiger with open arms before being dragged to a wooded area and killed as onlookers watched in horror.
Chapman died at the scene. The coroner’s office listed his cause of death as “multiple traumatic injuries” from an animal interaction.
A park spokesperson previously confirmed that the tiger was “safe and well and will not be euthanized.”
Chapman’s family told investigators the young man “had a history of mental illness, a diagnosis of schizophrenia” and had been under the care of mental health services.
Years before his grisly death, Chapman starred opposite actress Shirley Henderson in the two-part ITV series “May Contain Nuts” and trained at the prestigious Jackie Palmer Stage School.
Minutes before he jumped in the cage, witnesses said Chapman seemed happy and pacing around with his headphones in. One video shows him asking another visitor to take a photo of him with the tiger.
Once inside, the man dropped to his knees in front of the predator and began taunting it, eyewitness Anthony Hunt told the Times of London.
“He had his arms wide open like he was saying: ‘Come here tiger. Kill me,'” he said.
The tiger then clamped down on his neck and dragged him away.