Crocodile attacks worker at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo during routine maintenance
45-year-old hospitalized with serious bite wounds, police say guard who shot reptile likely saved worker’s life; crocodile dies of injuries, second reptile lightly injured
A crocodile attacked a worker performing routine maintenance work in the reptile’s enclosure at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem on Sunday, police said.
The worker, 45, was taken to the city’s Hadassah hospital in serious condition after the animal bit him repeatedly.
A security guard who noticed the commotion shot the crocodile, likely saving the worker’s life, police said. The crocodile was treated by the zoo’s veterinary staff but was confirmed later on Sunday to have died of its wounds.
“They alerted me and I came on a motorcycle,” the guard, Nati Cohen, told Ynet. “I shot seven bullets at the crocodiles.”
Police said officers rushed to the scene after receiving separate alerts about the gunshot and the crocodile attack. The incident was being probed as a workplace accident by police and Labor Ministry investigators.
The zoo also said it was investigating the incident, stressing that “at no point was there danger to visitors.”
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the injured worker had some 20 years of experience on the job.
The zoo told Ynet its veterinary staff was treating both the assaulting crocodile and another that had been shot. There was no update as to the condition of the second crocodile, although prior to the death of the attacking crocodile, Dr. Nili Even-Magen, a veterinary director at the zoo, said the reptiles had been only lightly injured due to their thick skin.
“This is really an unusual incident, which to our relief took place before the zoo opened,” Even-Magen told Ynet.
