Jaguar attacks 3-year-old boy at US zoo

A three-year-old boy was attacked by a jaguar after he fell into an enclosure of two jaguars at a zoo in Arkansas, United States.

According to the police in Little Rock, Arkansas, the boy was grabbed by the neck by one of the two jaguars and by the foot of the second cat after he fell about 4.5 metres into the enclosure.

Currently lying in critical condition at Arkansas Children’s hospital, the lad, according to ABC news report, suffered broad lacerations to his scalp, a depressed skull fracture and several puncture wounds.

How the child fell into the open-air exhibit at the zoo is what police are still trying to establish but police report said his father and grandfather were with him at the time of the accident, according to a police report on the incident.

It was learnt that the animals dropped the child after his father and grandfather threw a camera bag and an empty water hose spool at them.

Authorities said zoo personnel entered the exhibit and used fire extinguishers to ward off the jaguars until the boy was rescued.