Veteran zookeeper is fighting for her life after a panther mauled her inside a Dutch safari park enclosure

The keeper, a woman in her 50s who had spent 25 years at Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, was alone with two Persian leopards kept indoors because of Storm Austen. She radioed for help on her walkie-talkie and was found with severe head wounds. A trauma helicopter rushed her to hospital for surgery. Head of animal care Martin van Hees called her condition 'worrying'.

No CCTV covers the enclosure's interior, leaving the precise sequence of events unknown.

The leopard will not be put down, and staff say it 'just sat in its enclosure'.

Park director Rens Willemsen said: 'It is a deeply, deeply sad day.'