Escaped tiger shot after killing zoo visitor, injuring 2 others

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- An escaped tiger attacked and killed a zoo patron Tuesday afternoon in a cafe at the San Francisco Zoo, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Fire Department told CNN.

A San Francisco Zoo visitor attacked by an escaped tiger is carried away on a stretcher.

The tiger was shot and killed after attacking two other visitors, Mindy Talmadge said. Both of the victims were transported to San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening injuries, she said.

A spokeswoman at the hospital would not give out any information about the victims.

"Apparently, right around closing time -- there was a pen with four tigers in it -- one of the tigers got out," Talmadge said. "The tiger went into a cafe at the zoo and attacked a patron. That person ended up dying at the scene."

Police arrived on the scene as the tiger attacked two other patrons, Talmadge said.

"They shot the tiger, and the tiger is deceased," she said.

Talmadge said the 125-acre zoo was locked down after the incident and all the facility's other animals were accounted for, including three other tigers that had been in the same enclosure with the escaped tiger.

Initially, officials feared some or all of the other tigers may have escaped, but later determined they had not, Talmadge said.

The 78-year-old zoo closed at 5 p.m. PT, and authorities received word of the escaped tiger at about 5:15 p.m. Police, fire and zoo officials remain on the scene investigating, Talmadge said.

A year ago, one of the zoo's Siberian tigers attacked a keeper during a public feeding. The keeper survived and recovered from her injuries.

California's Division of Occupation Safety and Health later determined that the zoo was at fault in the incident because of hazardous conditions in the Lion House, which houses the zoo's large cats, and lack of specialized safety training for employees. The zoo made OSH-ordered changes. The Lion House was closed for more than six months after that incident.

The zoo has Siberian tigers and rarer and smaller Sumatran tigers. It was not clear which subspecies of tiger was involved in the incident.