A young man was killed at a Delhi zoo this week when he fell or jumped into a tiger enclosure and was attacked by the tiger.

Witnesses claim that the white tiger grabbed the young man by the neck and refused to let go.

Onlookers and zoo employees yelled and screamed at the tiger and threw rocks and sticks at it to try to scare it away from the young man, but it didn’t help.

A zoo guard pulled an alarm for help but by the time help arrived the boy was already dead.

It is not clear if the man entered the enclosure on purpose or fell in accidentally. Zoo visitors claimed that the rails around the enclosure were lower than expected and said that it would have been easy for the man to have fallen into the enclosure.

The white tiger was seen roaming its cage at Delhi Zoo with the young man in its mouth. http://t.co/b9evSw619f pic.twitter.com/n5DEOLGCG2

— National Post (@nationalpost) September 23, 2014

The age of the young man is unknown. Local news channels first reported that the victim was a teenager but later said that he was at least 20. A zoo official claimed that the boy was intoxicated at the time of the incident.

“Security had tried to keep him away from the enclosure, but he somehow managed to jump in and the white tiger who was present at the enclosure leapt on to him,” junior official Rohit Kumar told AFP.

“This is the first time such an incident has occurred in this enclosure,” he added.

The tiger was removed from the enclosure and locked in a cage after the incident. The zoo is home to three white tigers, but only one of them is ever released into the enclosure to be viewed by visitors.

Zoo officials did not say what would happen to the tiger that attacked the boy and although white tigers are endangered, many people believe the animal should be put down.

Do you think the tiger is to blame for the incident?