A Siberian tiger attacked and killed a Zurich zookeeper on Saturday, the management said in a statement.

An emergency team was alerted in the early afternoon and quickly managed to draw the tiger away from the cage where the attack took place, it added.

A tiger is pictured at a zoo in India in April 2020
A tiger is pictured at a zoo in India in April 2020 AFP / Dibyangshu SARKAR

But the 55-year-old keeper nonetheless "died on the spot," the statement said.

An investigation has begun "to determine why the zookeeper was in the cage at the same time as the animal," it said.