Tuesday
July 31 11:23 AM ET
Hippo Mauls Swimmer at Zoo
KIEV (Reuters) - A hippopotamus mauled a Ukrainian woman who leapt into
a zoo enclosure to swim with the three ton animal and its baby, a zoo
official said on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old was rushed to hospital with severe injuries after Masha
the hippopotamus savaged the intruder to defend her offspring at Kharkiv
Zoo in northeast Ukraine.
``The girl...was messing around outside the fence and then decided, for
some reason, to go and play and swim with the hippopotamus,'' Yelena
Tkachenko, the zoo's director, told Reuters.
Zoo workers managed to pull the woman out of the enclosure.
``The attack was the normal reaction of a normal animal defending her
child and her territory,'' Tkachenko said.
The woman is in a serious but stable condition in a local hospital.
Tkachenko said the girl had not been drunk.
Zoo officials said visitors commonly ignored warning signs and fences
to try to cavort with the animals.
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