Yorkshire Wildlife Park names man killed by tiger as William Chapman

William Chapman, 23, was killed by a tiger after he entered its enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster, the park and police said. The incident took place shortly after 13:30 BST on Saturday, and Chapman was pronounced dead at the scene. The park was evacuated and remains closed while investigations continue. South Yorkshire Police said Chapman was visiting the park alone and that his family is being supported by specialist officers.timesofindia.indiatimes.com+1

The death matters because a rare Amur tiger was involved, a health and safety investigation is now open, and questions are being asked about how a visitor reached the animal. City of Doncaster Council has launched that inquiry and the park remains shut. What is new is the identification of the man and his family's statement about his mental health, which they say the coroner must weigh in deciding whether it played a part in his death.

Family pays tribute to Chapman

Chapman's family described him in a statement released on Tuesday evening as "a bright, warm and engaging young man whom his family dearly loved - and William loved them back." They said he had suffered from "significant mental illness" over a number of years and had been prescribed "strong medication", and asked that the coroner decide whether it played a part in his death. They also asked for privacy, saying offensive media content was causing them distress.

An eyewitness, Ella Ford, 24, said she saw Chapman pacing near the enclosure while wearing headphones, then climb onto the barriers. She said a woman had been talking to him before he climbed in, crawled in front of the tiger and lay down near it on a wooden platform. Ford said the tiger grabbed Chapman as he shouted for help, and that visitors banged on the fence to distract the animal without success. Another witness, Anthony Hunt, said a woman tried to restrain Chapman before he broke away.

Mobile phone footage believed to be from Chapman shows the inside of the enclosure as he approaches the tiger across grass, with onlookers urging him to retreat. Park wardens discharged warning shots to frighten the animal away before it withdrew and was contained, and emergency responders arrived shortly after 13:30. Karmelle Pelham, 39, recalled hearing sounds resembling gunshots and seeing an air ambulance circling overhead. Ford estimated 15 to 20 people were on the raised walkway before staff evacuated the area.

What eyewitnesses described

The tiger is Altai, a five-year-old Amur tiger, a subspecies among the world's rarest big cats with roughly 500 surviving in the wild. South Yorkshire Police said the animal was uninjured, remained in its enclosure and posed no wider risk to the public. Yorkshire Wildlife Park confirmed Altai is "safe and well" and will not be put down. The park's Land of the Tigers exhibit, a two-acre habitat for Amur tigers, opened in 2011.bolnews.com

Chapman was a former pupil of the Jackie Palmer Stage School in High Wycombe, which paid tribute on Tuesday. As a child he appeared in the ITV production May Contain Nuts alongside Shirley Henderson and Darren Boyd, and portrayed Edward Jenner in the BBC series True Stories. Police appealed to the public not to share footage of the attack, and the family said circulation of offensive content was causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time.

Dr Campbell Murn, a former member of the government's zoo expert committee and a lecturer at the University of Reading, said determined people can get inside zoo enclosures. Professor Amy Dickman, director of WildCRU at the University of Oxford, said it is virtually impossible for zoos to stop people who are very determined to breach safety measures. A spokesperson for the Born Free Foundation called for an urgent review of how Chapman gained access and what happened afterward.