Rare Sumatran tiger kills man after dragging him from hut in Indonesian village

Sumatran tiger kills man as friends try to help

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A rare Sumatran tiger dragged a man from a hut in an Indonesian village and broke his neck as friends tried to rescue the victim, an official said Monday.

The 26-year-old man, identified as Darmilus, was attacked Sunday while he and seven friends were resting in a makeshift hut in Seponjen village near the protected Berbak National Park, a known tiger habitat.

Darmilus was lying closest to the door when the tiger grabbed him and dragged him outside, said Nurazman, an official with Jambi Province conservation agency. His friends managed to pursue and fought to release him from the tiger’s grip.

“The tiger finally ran away but had wounded the victim on his head and neck,” killing him, said Nurazman, who uses a single name.

Local authorities are investigating why the friends, who were on a fishing trip, were camping so close to the park.

The Sumatran tiger is the most endangered tiger subspecies in the world, largely because of poaching and the destruction of their forest habitat for palm oil and wood pulp plantations. The government says only about 250 of them are left in the wild.