A rare white tiger has mauled a zookeeper to death in its enclosure at a zoo in Japan, officials said.

The 40-year old man was found bleeding from the neck in the tiger's cage. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.

Officials believe he was attacked by one of the park's four white tigers, media reports said.

The tiger was sedated with a tranquiliser before rescue workers and police arrived at the scene.

The attack took place late on Monday at the Hirakawa Zoological Park in the southern city of Kagoshima.

Police are now investigating how the zoo looks after its white tigers, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

In 2017, a British zookeeper was killed by a tiger in its enclosure in a Cambridgeshire zoo while in Russia, a keeper survived a tiger attack in the city of Kaliningrad.

BBC Online

BDST: 0923 HRS, OCT 9, 2018
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