An animal keeper was bitten to death by a hungry tiger at Shanghai Zoo this morning.

An animal keeper was bitten to death by a hungry tiger at Shanghai Zoo this morning. An investigation is undergone.

The 53-year-old victim surnamed Li was about to clean the tiger cage and feed the animal at about 8:15am when the bengal tiger inside suddenly jumped out and bit him in the neck, witnesses said.

The tiger dragged Li around inside the cage as more than 10 shocked tourists watching. Though waiving his arm for help for several times, the victim was soon unable to move and finally laid on the ground, with all the clothes ragged by the tiger.

Li was pronounced dead at the time ambulances arrived at about 8:30am.

"Zoo staff said that the tiger didn't have anything to eat the whole day yesterday, it must have been starving," said one of the witnesses.

A team of police officers, zoo managers and animal experts have started to probe into cause of the deadly mishap.

It is the second case that man was bitten to death in the city. In 1999, a 41-year-old tour bus driver died after he got off the broken-down bus in the tigers' zone and was attacked by a wandering tiger nearby.