THIS is the shocking moment a tiger attacks a female zookeeper in front of horrified visitors. <br />The Siberian big cat sprung on the woman as she brought food into its enclosure. <br /> <br />Disturbing pictures show the zookeeper screaming on the ground as the tiger mauls her and appears to go in for the kill. <br /> <br />Heroic eyewitnesses jumped to the rescue and threw stones and shouted to distract the big cat. <br /> <br />One said: “The girl’s face was bleeding. She screamed and tried to fight off the animal.” <br />The woman was then able to escape and ran to a secure part of the compound in Kaliningrad, Russia. <br /> <br />She was rushed to hospital with multiple wounds and is now in a critical but stable condition. <br /> <br />The tiger – called Typhoon – was meant to be in a secure part of the compound when she brought the food. <br /> <br />Staff later arrived and shot a sedative into the beast, which has never attacked anyone before. <br />"This allowed the zoo employee to hide in a back room." <br /> <br />Typhoon turns 16 today and had not shown any previous aggression to zoo staff. <br /> <br />But today a source branded her "bad-tempered" and "aggressive".
