Image copyright Reuters Image caption It's not clear what triggered the white tiger's attack (file photo) 
 
 A rare white tiger has mauled a zookeeper to death in its enclosure at a zoo in Japan, officials say. Akira Furusho, 40, was found collapsed and bleeding from the neck in a cage by a colleague on Monday after the Hirakawa Zoological Park closed for the day at 5 p.m., according to rescue workers. He was confirmed dead after being taken to a hospital. "We plan not to kill Riku and continue to keep it because the bereaved family asked us to do so," said Takuro Nagasako, a zoo official said, quoted by the AFP news agency. Tigers are normally removed from the display pen to a separate area before staff enter. Police are investigating how the zoological park looks after the four white tigers it keeps, while labor authorities interviewed some zoo workers to see if the zoo had possibly violated a law on safety at work.
– A rare attack from a rare tiger killed a zookeeper in Japan on Monday. Officials say 40-year-old Akira Furosho was found bleeding from the neck in a cage in the Hirakawa Zoological Park in the southern city of Kagoshima, the BBC reports. They believe he was attacked by Riku, one of the zoo's four white tigers. The 375-pound animal, a 5-year-old male, was sedated with a tranquilizer gun. Police are investigating procedures at the zoo, where the manual states that keepers are not allowed to enter display cages until tigers have been moved to their sleeping chambers, reports the Japan Times. (Last year, two white tiger cubs killed a novice zookeeper in India.)