In a statement on its website, the Shanghai Wildlife Park said it was
"extremely distressed that such a tragedy occurred", adding that it also
"apologised to tourists for any inconvenience caused".To get more
latest Shanghai news, you can visit shine news official website.
The
park says it is currently looking into the incident, would improve its
safety management and "do our best to handle the aftermath of the
incident".
It has since temporarily closed the wild beast area, refunded tickets for visitors and "strengthened its safety operations".
The
video, circulating on China's Weibo, shows tourists yelling as they sit
inside a bus, while several bears can be seen gathered outside, crowded
in one spot.
The area is only accessible to visitors by bus, with
footage on social media site Weibo showing how animals are allowed to
roam freely.
In the video, a man can be heard exclaiming "there's someone [there]", while someone else is heard asking "what's going on?".
The video quickly went viral and stirred debate about the existence of zoos.
Some
argued that the bears were only acting as any wild animal would,
proposing the only solution to eradicate such accidents was to "just
close zoos... let animals be free".
Others condemned the zoo's lack
of safety measures, and expressed sympathy for the tourists that
witnessed the accident, saying they would be "deeply traumatised".
It
is rare for zoo workers in China to be mauled to death by animals, but
attacks are not entirely uncommon - although in most of these cases,
these accidents are allegedly brought on by the visitors themselves.
In
2017, a man was bitten by a bear in a drive-through wildlife park in
China after he ignored park warnings and rolled down his window to feed
the bear.
The Wall