Escape of big cat belonging to Germany’s ‘Tiger Queen’ shatters peace of small town

Gardeners tending to allotments were terrified to see animal roaming wild after mauling one of its keepers – but critics have long been concerned

A tiger on the loose among garden allotments. Panicked residents summoning armed police ill-equipped to deal with a dangerous predator. And, behind it all, Germany’s self-proclaimed “Tiger Queen” and her private menagerie.

In startling scenes over the weekend in the eastern town of Schkeuditz, near Leipzig airport, the mix proved fatal for a big cat named Sandokan and left a keeper seriously injured.