By ANDRE YEO

Man killed by white tigers at Singapore Zoo

THE man who had entered its den was like a new-found toy to Omar, the Singapore Zoo's male Siberian white tiger.

This was the view of a zookeeper when asked by the coroner's court to interpret the tiger's actions that led to the death of cleaner Nordin Montong last year.

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Mr Kumar Vall Sivalingam, who has been with the zoo for eight years, said keepers would throw in objects like colourful oil drums for the well-fed tigers to play with and to stimulate them.

State Coroner Victor Yeo, probing the death of the cleaner, asked Mr Kumar what would have prompted Omar to bite Nordin and drag him up the bank.

Mr Kumar said: 'I think Omar's intention is that it's (Nordin) just a toy for him.

'And when visitors shouted, and the keepers were shouting, he thought they were trying to get his toy away from him.

'So he was protective and brought him to the upper level away from the shouting.'

Mr Kumar described Omar as the dominant tiger in the enclosure. The other two were Winnie and Jippie, both females.

Said Mr Kumar: 'When you throw a device, he will be the first to go for it. He will take it (as if saying), 'It's mine, don't touch'.

'The females will investigate if there's (something) thrown. If Omar is aggressive, the females will move away.'

Mr Kumar told the court the tigers were fed three times a week. They had been fed at 6pm on 12 Nov, a day before the incident.

He was shown footage of the mauling filmed by a teen visitor when Nordin had waded in the moat which separated the tigers from visitors.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Lynda Lee asked Mr Kumar to comment on the tiger's behaviour when Nordin jumped into the water with a bucket.

He said keepers would throw food from a bucket to the animals.

Miss Lee asked if there was a chance Nordin could have been saved if he had jumped into the water after being pinned down at first by the tiger. Some visitors had shouted at him to do that.

Mr Kumar said the 1.75m-deep water in the moat would have restricted the tiger's movements.

He said: 'If he had stayed in the water, there would be a chance of saving him. Because if tigers are in the water, they are not as agile.

'The water is a bit high and they would not be able to place their hind legs on the ground for support.'

Mr Kumar told the court he had not witnessed the initial attack and saw Nordin only after he had been mauled. He was having lunch with two other keepers in their rest room beside the tiger enclosure when Nordin jumped in.

Mr Kumar said he was the first person to enter the enclosure after Omar bit Nordin three times, and dragged the cleaner to a corner.

He said he grabbed a metal pole and poked it through the fence at Omar. The tiger then retreated to the den as the other two tigers had done.

After the tigers were locked in, Mr Kumar and other keepers rushed in to help the unconscious cleaner.

Said Mr Kumar: 'I saw him having his last breath.'

The mauling was captured on video by Mohammad Khairul Nizam Zainal, 16, who later handed the footage to The New Paper's correspondent, Mr Desmond Ng.

A Singapore Civil Defence Force ambulance arrived and paramedics pronounced Nordin dead at 12.45pm.

Looked cheerful

Another keeper, Mr Muhammad Nawawi Ali, told the court earlier that he had seen Nordin just before the incident and he looked happy and cheerful.

Mr Muhammad said in his statement that Nordin told him: 'I think we will not meet again. I will no longer be here any more. You take care.'

He said yesterday: 'I thought it was his last day at the zoo.'

Senior consultant forensic pathologist Dr Teo Eng Swee found 90 external injuries on the victim's body. He recorded the cause of death as multiple injuries from animal mauling.

Mr Yeo noted that Nordin did not fall into the enclosure accidentally. He said police investigations showed that Nordin had jumped into the moat.

Nordin also had an opportunity to move away from the tigers and could have gone into the water.

Instead, he had thrust his chest out towards Omar and was heard shouting 'Allah Akhbar' (God is great) and did not struggle with the tigers.

Just before the incident, tourists and staff had seen Nordin throw things like photographs and equipment around the zoo.

He said the police could not uncover what could have made him behave that way.

He said that having viewed the footage of the attack, 'there was no doubt in my mind that he had climbed into the enclosure and waded through the water'.

Mr Yeo recorded a verdict of suicide.

This article was first published in The New Paper.