Shocking Video: White Tigers Maul Man To Death At Singapore Zoo

by Jim Brogan

Three white tigers are responsible for mauling a Malaysian to death in Singapore's zoo last Thursday. The tigers attacked the man after he jumped into their enclosure, a zoo official said.

Malaysian Nordin Bin Montong, 32, was working as a cleaner at the zoo, leapt into the moat of the white tiger exhibit and was attacked, said assistant director of zoology at the Singapore Zoo -- Biswajit Guha -- in a statement.

Zookeepers nearby were alerted by the noise from the attack and they eventually managed to distract the tigers and free Nordin.

"Keepers managed to separate the worker from the tiger. While waiting for the ambulance, our vets attended to him," said Guha. "The worker tragically succumbed to his wound."

According to Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, Nordin was seen behaving in an aggravated manner before he entered the moat. Horrified visitors near the section observed the vicious attack and screamed, the paper said.

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Singapore Zoo: White tiger attack posted online

A week after Singapore zoo cleaner Nordin Montong's death as a result of him jumping into the white tiger enclosure and being attacked by the animals, video footage of the 32-year-old being set upon by two of the three big cats in the enclosure have surfaced online.

The video which was obviously taken by visitors to the Singapore Zoo was very recently posted on a number of video sharing sites.

Though the family of the dead man have already seen a version of the video, this is the first time that video footage of the attack has been made available to the public.

In the 46 second clip, you can see one of the tigers biting Nordin Montong. Shouting and sirens can also be heard in the background as those present try to distract the tigers.

Towards the end of the clip, the zoo staff comes up to stop the visitors from filming the horrific scene.

Now the question is, as one AsiaOne reader puts it if the posting of this footage was done in in bad taste and 'disrespectful' due to the graphic and gory nature of the incident. source:White tiger attack posted online
AsiaOne, Singapore

» Photo gallery..

Singapore Zoo Tiger: He fights tooth and nail to stay alive

GAPS in the first video of cleaner Nordin Montong's mauling by two white tigers at the Singapore Zoo left unanswered a critical question:

Did the 32-year-old have a change of heart after jumping into the enclosure?

Now, a new video has emerged of Thursday's incident from another eye-witness.

And it reveals Mr Nordin's desperate fight to save himself, first by trying to get up and back into the moat, then by kicking one of the two tigers.

Aziz Ansari, 16, who is waiting for his O-levels results, filmed the initial part of the horrific attack with his handphone.

'Initially, he was walking towards the tigers quite willingly,' said Aziz. 'But after the first attack, I think he realised the impact of it.'

The clip started with Aziz and his six friends at the white tiger exhibit joking about how far tigers could jump.

The next shot was of the tigers' enclosure, which showed Mr Nordin wading in the moat, attracting the attention of one, then two tigers, and getting pawed by them.

Mr Nordin was clearly taken by surprise by the ferocity of the attack. His right hand, holding onto a broomstick, was shaking.

Aziz and his friends made repeated calls to Mr Nordin to 'get into the water'.

Mr Nordin seemed to hear them because he made a sudden and desperate attempt to jump back into the water.

But the two tigers were too fast and too strong. Both cats clawed at him with their huge paws and knocked him down onto the stone ledge.

One cat bit the scruff of Mr Nordin's neck to prevent him from escaping and tried to drag him further into the enclosure.

Mr Nordin struggled violently to be free of the cat's grip, even kicking the cat at one point.

Held down

Held down by the powerful cats, he then covered his head with the yellow pail that he was holding.

Then he stopped moving, seemingly paralysed in a foetal position, despite repeated calls by the public for him to get into the water.

The clip, which is just under two minutes long, ended there.

Said Aziz: 'I could see his face and he was shouting and screaming. Then I knew that something terrible had happened.'

He had first thought that Mr Nordin was going to feed the tigers because he was holding onto a pail while in the water.

But when the tigers started attacking him, he realised that this was no show.

Aziz said they shouted themselves hoarse trying to encourage Mr Nordin to escape.

He said: 'I could tell that he (Mr Nordin) was trying to escape. He looked like he had changed his mind.'

here
AsiaOne, Singapore

Singapore Zoo Tiger: Tiger attack caught on camera phones

> Zoo cleaner Nordin Montong’s final few minutes before he was mauled by three white tigers at the Singapore Zoo have been captured on camera phones and circulated on the Internet, reported Harian Metro.

Nordin, 32, died in the attack by the tigers last Thursday.

One of the witnesses, student Nizam Zainal, 16, said he thought the cleaner was one of the performers for the animal show.

Nizam said Nordin appeared calm until one of the tigers “slapped” him with such force that he fell onto his knees, causing visitors to shout in panic.

The video and images circulating on the Internet show one of the animals sinking its teeth into Nordin’s neck as the other two tigers ap­­proached.

In another video clip recorded by Aziz Ansari, 16, the victim was seen trying to escape the attack by kicking the tiger.

Aziz said he saw Nordin trying to jump into the moat but failed as he was blocked by the other two tigers.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a sub-heading, it denotes a separate news item.

here ...
Malaysia Star, Malaysia

Singapore Zoo Tiger:Curiosity thrills at the cats' enclosure

Gawkers head for re-opened tiger exhibit at the Singapore Zoo

By Benson Ang
November 20, 2008

QUIETLY, the white tigers were allowed to prowl their enclosure again.

PREDATORS: The white tigers seem more menacing now, say some visitors. TNP PICTURES: KELVIN CHNG

There were no public announcements, no fanfare by the Singapore Zoo.

And still they came, curious over the cats.

The white tiger exhibit re-opened at the zoo yesterday and, when The New Paper visited it at 4pm, there was a sombre mood in the air.

From afar, it looked as if nothing had changed. We could still lean onto the wooden fence barricading the enclosure.

The exhibit looked the same, with all three tigers on the main rock. Two were lying down, and the other was pacing up and down the rocky stretch.

It was as if there never was a mauling of a man by two of the tigers there last Thursday, before scores of shocked onlookers.

SNAP: Visitors are back at the tiger exhibit and spending more time at it.

But a closer look revealed something different. The visitors, about 20 of them, were quieter. We saw only one woman who was in a light-hearted mood.

When she was posing for a photograph, she curled her fingers into a claw and mimicked a ferocious tiger.

She looked Asian but it is not known if she knew about the death of cleaner Nordin Montong, 32, or whether she was a tourist. When we approached her, even she walked away, embarrassed.

Apart from the children, most visitors appeared serious. They talked among themselves in hushed tones. Some did not venture past the sheltered area of the exhibit, preferring to watch the tigers from afar.

Even a group of students from the Singapore Sports School, who were there on a school trip, talked very little among themselves.

They were about the same age as the students who filmed Mr Nordin death. And they were all aware of the attack.

Student Prakash Arasu, 15, said: 'Before, the tigers were like normal animals. Now, we want to see more of them.'

He visited the enclosure earlier that afternoon on a guided tour. When the students were given some time to roam around, he returned to the white tiger enclosure with three friends.

'I feel like I was returning to the scene of a crime. The shadow of the guy's death still lingers in the air.

'The tigers look fiercer, scarier, now.'

Before that, Prakash last saw the white tiger enclosure two months ago. There were fewer people then, he said.

His friend, Bryan Ashwin, 14, who visits the zoo three times a year, also said that there were more people yesterday than on usual days 'because of the publicity, because of what happened'.

'Last time, people just walked by. Now, they're coming in, and pointing to where the guy jumped down, and at which angle he fell.

'I think of all the animals, everyone will spend the longest time watching the white tigers.'

Bryan added that he used to look upon the tigers as majestic creatures. 'But now, when the tiger looks at me, a chill runs down my spine.

'The way they behave now is different. It is as if they are expecting someone to enter their home again.'

He felt that the exhibit was opened too soon.

'It was a national shock. Someone should really take a look into the safety precautions of the enclosure before opening it again. I expected the exhibit to be closed for at least three weeks.'

Others, like German tourist Grit Leonhardt, 38, were indifferent. She said: 'The tiger is a predator. It's in its nature to attack someone in front of it. It's neither more ferocious, nor less.'

Mr Subash Chandran, curator of zoology at the zoo, said the re-opening was not publicised in any way.

'Visitor numbers have been healthy since the weekend owing to the start of the Singapore school holidays,' he said.

'We have increased patrols at the area and are also reviewing the possibility of setting up alarms at various points within the park so that visitors can sound the alarm should they need help.'

Curiosity thrills at the cats' enclosure
Electric New Paper, Singapore

Singapore Zoo Tiger: It's painful, but we have peace at last

Wed, Nov 19, 2008
The New Paper

IT was painful to watch and it brought fresh tears.

But in watching the video of Malaysian Nordin Montong's last moments, his family has found peace and closure.

The 32-year-old cleaner was mauled to death in the Singapore Zoo's white tiger enclosure last Thursday.

His elder sister, Madam Nora Montong, 34, had repeatedly asked to see the video, which was taken by a group of teens who were at the viewing gallery when the attack took place.

The family wanted to see with their own eyes what had taken place on that fateful day.

Madam Nora could not believe that her brother had jumped into the enclosure on his own accord.

When interviewed over the phone from Kuching, Sarawak, on Friday, she had said: 'Maybe he got pushed? Maybe he was in a fight? We can't accept it.'

After much dilemma, we decided to show the clip only to family members, with the understanding that they could stop it at any time if they found the images too distressing.

Before the video was shown, Madam Nora, who sells food for a living, said in Malay: 'Of course we want to know what happened. So far, we've only heard the accounts of others.

'Although there have been photos in the papers, we still don't know the full picture.

'All sorts of possibilities and speculations have gone through our minds. We want to see it with our own eyes to satisfy ourselves.'

In the end, Madam Nora and her two younger sisters, Aida, 28, and Norazeana, 23, watched the whole clip, which lasts almost four minutes, not once, but twice in Madam Aida's home.

When Madam Aida, an assistant welfare officer, saw the tiger striking Mr Nordin, she cringed and said repeatedly in Malay: 'Oh God!'

She then broke down in tears, putting her hand to her mouth. Miss Norazeana also started crying.

Shrank from screen

When the attack became more intense, the two sisters were clearly shocked. Their upper bodies shrank away from the screen even as their eyes were glued to what was unfolding.

Only Madam Nora remained cool, motioning her sisters to stay calm while she leaned forward to hear what Mr Nordin was saying.

She observed: 'He was afraid. He asked for help. He was in pain.'

When the clip was over, she asked to see it again, with the volume turned to maximum.

The sisters then saw the beginning of the clip for the third time, pausing and analysing each frame until the part where the tiger struck Mr Nordin down.

They all remarked that he was not himself in the way that he had aggressively approached the tigers with his arms raised and outstretched.

Madam Aida said: 'He has never acted like that. It's so strange. He seemed unaware of himself, like he was under a spell or possessed.'

They could not take seeing the rest of the clip for the third time.

It was only when reflecting on what she had seen that Madam Nora started crying.

With tears streaming down her face, she said: 'As a sister, what gives me peace is that he was praising God with his last breath. That's most important for us.'

They no longer have niggling doubts about him being pushed into the enclosure.

Miss Norazeana, who graduated recently, said: 'We accept what happened. We can't blame anyone.'

At the same time, they firmly rule out the possibility of suicide.

Madam Aida said: 'There are easier ways to die, he didn't have to go into the enclosure.'

Madam Nora agreed: 'He was struggling and shouting for help. If he wanted to die, he would have just surrendered himself to the tigers.'

Do they wonder why Mr Nordin was behaving so strangely when he entered the enclosure?

Madam Nora said: 'I've heard of hauntings at the zoo. Of course, we don't want to believe everything we hear.

'Suffice to say, this is his fate. We each have to die in our own way. Only God knows how it's going to be.'

The sisters do not plan to tell their parents about what they had seen until after the hundred days of mourning.

Madam Nora said: 'They think it was an accident, so we will let them carry on thinking that.

'They are both not that healthy and my mother, especially, is very distraught because Nordin was her favourite child. I don't want to add to their grief.'

The sisters are glad that they saw the video.

Madam Aida said: 'Before this, there were so many different stories, we didn't know what to believe. Now that we've seen and heard for ourselves, we can accept his death.

'No matter what other people say, we know the truth.'

It's painful, but we have peace at last
AsiaOne, Singapore

Singapore Zoo Tiger: Why should people suffer?

Elysa Chen Tue, Nov 18, 2008
The New Paper

HE was so angry when he heard the news of cleaner Nordin Montong's death that Mr Ramson Ali applied for leave to visit the zoo the next day.

And when the 42-year-old got there, he went around doing a 'personal audit' of the zoo, inspecting the barriers and the safety measures adopted there.

He was not just being a busybody. Mr Ramson, a consultant in the food and beverage industry, told The New Paper on Sunday that he was angry because his own niece had been seriously hurt in a zoo accident two years ago.

He said: 'Such things should never happen. I was shocked when I heard the news and I thought about my niece. Something must be done to improve the level of safety at the zoo.'

On 5 Oct 2006, Mr Ramson's niece, Miss Ernie Fazlihana Ismail, was attacked by a rhinoceros while working as a zookeeper in the Night Safari, an extension of the Singapore Zoo.

The two-tonne animal had charged at Miss Ernie, then 24 years old, apparently after being startled by a camera flash from a visitor.

She and her male colleague had been feeding the rhino. After the flash, the animal charged at Miss Ernie, knocking her from the back and trampling on her.

Her male colleague dislocated his right shoulder while trying to distract the animal. Other zookeepers eventually evacuated Miss Ernie and her colleague.

Miss Ernie's thigh was so badly fractured after the attack that she needed surgery. Mr Ramson said the rhinoceros' horn had also gored his niece's thigh, leaving a big hole in her leg.

He said: 'After the accident, my niece could not walk for one year.'

Miss Ernie has recovered and is back in the zoo working in its office, Mr Ramson said, but he is not sure what position she holds.

He said: 'Others may have blamed the animals, but she didn't blame the animals at all. She was just angry at those people who did not follow the rules.'

Though Mr Ramson concedes that the death of Mr Nordin is unlike the incident involving his niece, he and his wife believe extra safety precautions should have been put in place.

He said: 'For enclosures with dangerous animals, there should be more barricades between the visitors and the animals, such as a glass barrier which can still allow people to see the animals. This way, no one will hurt themselves in the zoo.'

Gesturing to the fence at the white tigers' exhibit, behind which visitors would stand, Mr Ramson, who visits the zoo three times a year, said: 'Look at the barrier. It barely comes up to someone's waist. You never know, in a split second, a child who has never seen these animals may get too excited, climb on the ledge, and fall in. Then it's game-over.'

Agreeing, Mrs Ramson, 31, a grooming consultant, said that while she liked the open concept of the zoo, she believes that security could be improved by stationing more zookeepers around animal enclosures.

She said: 'When we visited a zoo in Australia, there were zookeepers stationed everywhere. Here, it is too quiet in certain corners of the zoo.'

She suggested that zookeepers could wear a device that would alert the office once they crossed a boundary, so that staff members could be activated immediately once any accident occurs.

On top of that, Mrs Ramson felt that employees at the zoo should undergo psychological tests, and heads of departments should monitor the emotional well-being of staff members before letting them go to work.

The zoo has already said that it plans to review its safety procedures.

Spokesman Biswajit Guha, the zoo's assistant director of zoology, said that the zoo may consider installing a trip-wire along the fence of the white tiger enclosure.

It is already considering increasing the frequency of patrols. Right now, there are 80 staff members patrolling the zoo at any one time.

Ms Isabel Cheng, director of sales marketing and communication at Wildlife Reserves Singapore, the zoo's parent company, said that zookeepers have been briefed to be on the lookout for people who look troubled. External contractors such as the one that Mr Nordin was working for would also be briefed to do the same, she said.

Mr Ramson said: 'What everyone has learnt after the latest incident is the importance of educating people to be responsible, for yourself and others around you - whether it is about not using camera flash in the zoo, or endangering yourself unnecessarily.

'Perhaps the zoo could conduct briefings and educate everyone on this, before letting people go in, whether they are workers or visitors.'

Why should people suffer?
AsiaOne, Singapore

Singapore Zoo: It's painful, but we have peace at last

DEATH AT THE ZOO

Sisters cringe and cry watching video of tiger attack

IT was painful to watch and it brought fresh tears.

TOO PAINFUL: (From left) Madam Aida, Madam Nora and Miss Norazeana, with reporter Teh Jen Lee in green, in tears after watching the video. PICTURES: MOHD ISHAK SAMON

But in watching the video of Malaysian Nordin Montong's last moments, his family has found peace and closure.

The 32-year-old cleaner was mauled to death in the Singapore Zoo's white tiger enclosure last Thursday.

His elder sister, Madam Nora Montong, 34, had repeatedly asked to see the video, which was taken by a group of teens who were at the viewing gallery when the attack took place.

The family wanted to see with their own eyes what had taken place on that fateful day.

Madam Nora could not believe that her brother had jumped into the enclosure on his own accord.

When interviewed over the phone from Kuching, Sarawak, on Friday, she had said: 'Maybe he got pushed? Maybe he was in a fight? We can't accept it.'

After much dilemma, we decided to show the clip only to family members, with the understanding that they could stop it at any time if they found the images too distressing.

Before the video was shown, Madam Nora, who sells food for a living, said in Malay: 'Of course we want to know what happened. So far, we've only heard the accounts of others.

'Although there have been photos in the papers, we still don't know the full picture.

'All sorts of possibilities and speculations have gone through our minds. We want to see it with our own eyes to satisfy ourselves.'

In the end, Madam Nora and her two younger sisters, Aida, 28, and Norazeana, 23, watched the whole clip, which lasts almost four minutes, not once, but twice in Madam Aida's home.

When Madam Aida, an assistant welfare officer, saw the tiger striking Mr Nordin, she cringed and said repeatedly in Malay: 'Oh God!'

She then broke down in tears, putting her hand to her mouth. Miss Norazeana also started crying.

Shrank from screen

When the attack became more intense, the two sisters were clearly shocked. Their upper bodies shrank away from the screen even as their eyes were glued to what was unfolding.

Only Madam Nora remained cool, motioning her sisters to stay calm while she leaned forward to hear what Mr Nordin was saying.

She observed: 'He was afraid. He asked for help. He was in pain.'

When the clip was over, she asked to see it again, with the volume turned to maximum.

The sisters then saw the beginning of the clip for the third time, pausing and analysing each frame until the part where the tiger struck Mr Nordin down.

They all remarked that he was not himself in the way that he had aggressively approached the tigers with his arms raised and outstretched.

Madam Aida said: 'He has never acted like that. It's so strange. He seemed unaware of himself, like he was under a spell or possessed.'

They could not take seeing the rest of the clip for the third time.

It was only when reflecting on what she had seen that Madam Nora started crying.

With tears streaming down her face, she said: 'As a sister, what gives me peace is that he was praising God with his last breath. That's most important for us.'

They no longer have niggling doubts about him being pushed into the enclosure.

Miss Norazeana, who graduated recently, said: 'We accept what happened. We can't blame anyone.'

At the same time, they firmly rule out the possibility of suicide.

Madam Aida said: 'There are easier ways to die, he didn't have to go into the enclosure.'

Madam Nora agreed: 'He was struggling and shouting for help. If he wanted to die, he would have just surrendered himself to the tigers.'

Do they wonder why Mr Nordin was behaving so strangely when he entered the enclosure?

Madam Nora said: 'I've heard of hauntings at the zoo. Of course, we don't want to believe everything we hear.

'Suffice to say, this is his fate. We each have to die in our own way. Only God knows how it's going to be.'

The sisters do not plan to tell their parents about what they had seen until after the hundred days of mourning.

Madam Nora said: 'They think it was an accident, so we will let them carry on thinking that.

'They are both not that healthy and my mother, especially, is very distraught because Nordin was her favourite child. I don't want to add to their grief.'

The sisters are glad that they saw the video.

Madam Aida said: 'Before this, there were so many different stories, we didn't know what to believe. Now that we've seen and heard for ourselves, we can accept his death.

'No matter what other people say, we know the truth.'

Yes, let them watch video for closure

SIX readers responded yesterday to Teh Jen Lee's commentary, 'Please let us watch attack video' in The New Paper on Sunday, in which she voiced the dilemma of whether to show Mr Nordin Montong's family the tiger attack video clip.

The family had asked to see it because they wanted to know what had happened. All readers said the family should view the video clip.

It's painful, but we have peace at last
Electric New Paper, Singapore

Photo: Man killed by white tigers at Singapore Zoo

The man, who works as a cleaner at the zoo, had jumped into the enclosure and agitated the tigers.
Photos courtesy of Nizam Zainal, Reuters and ST.




















May god bless his soul.

Singapore Zoo: Man uncaged and dangerous

by Tay Yek Keak

CHILLS would surely have run down your spine when you saw the photograph: Two enormous white tigers hovering over a cowering man who would soon die.

The man had a pail over his head. It looked so strange, so horrific, so surreal, that you would have a hard time believing it happened.

But now, as the initial shock of the tragic incident at the Singapore zoo wears off, come the questions.

Could the man have been saved? Should the animals be destroyed? Can we make the enclosure harder to climb into? There may be some debate over these questions, but definitive conclusions can be found and the matter will eventually be put to rest.

But one perplexing question will remain, eluding all attempts to find an answer. It's an unpredictable time bomb which we cannot understand: Why did the man do what he did? We will never know. The victim took the answer to his grave.

The widely-held view is that he chose to kill himself in this fashion. That raises other questions. How can we stop a man from inflicting harm on himself? How do we prevent such self-destruction? If we extend these questions to a wider context, we could also ask: How do we stop a suicide bomber?

This is the essential problem: How can we save a human being from himself? It is a question as old as time, and one that will continue to challenge us in the future. Simply because the problem has no real answer.

More disturbingly, this incident at the zoo adds a new wrinkle to the age-old puzzle. A man walked to his doom, into a pen of deadly beasts. He did not kill himself with a man-made contraption, such as an onrushing train.

Often, we assume that wild creatures are unknowable; that their actions are unpredictable. But in this case, the animals acted on instinct; they reacted on impulse when they pounced upon the poor man.

Compared to him, the animals behaved more rationally than he did.

Elsewhere in the world, similar incidents involving humans have occurred in zoos. Last December, at the San Francisco Zoo, three men allegedly taunted a tiger which later escaped from its enclosure and killed one of them.

And early last month in Alice Springs, Australia, a little boy was caught on camera behaving with shocking cruelty towards animals.

He had broken into a reptile exhibit and was seen feeding live animals to a crocodile. He is only seven years old. Within the 30-minute killing spree, he also bashed several lizards to death with a rock. Most chillingly, in the video footage, the boy's face remained largely blank.

"It was as though he was playing a game," said the zoo's director.

These acts are unexplainable. By contrast, an animal is easy to understand. A tiger is a tiger. Aggravate it and it will do exactly what it does every time.

Yes, our zoo could do more to enhance the security of its enclosures. Not to keep the animals in but, ironically, to keep the humans out. It is quite illogical that it has come to this.

But this is necessary because of one thing that will never change. The nature of the beast may be explainable, but the nature of man is something that we can never understand.

Man uncaged and dangerous
AsiaOne, Singapore