A tiger killed a visitor to a wildlife park in eastern China on Sunday after the man apparently entered its enclosure, the second such attack in just six months, media reports said.

The incident occurred at the Youngor Wildlife Park in the city of Ningbo, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Shanghai, according to media reports which added that one tiger in the enclosure was shot dead as a result.

Video emerged online showing a tiger mauling a man in black clothing as visitors screamed in horror and two other tigers stood close by watching.

The tigers were eventually driven away by park staff using firecrackers and water cannon, said a report in the Beijing Youth Daily, which added that the man was rushed to hospital but later died.

The reports said it was not clear how or why the man, whose wife and child had come to the park with him, had gotten into the tiger enclosure.

In July last year a woman who got out of her car at Badaling Wildlife World in Beijing was attacked and dragged away by a tiger.

Her husband leapt out of the car in pursuit, as did her mother. The mother tried to hit the beast but was attacked by two other tigers and mauled to death.

Separately, a tiger escaped from a circus in Sicily, running along the road in a town near Palermo before being recaptured.

Monreale Mayor Piero Capizzi said at first he thought someone was joking when he was told a tiger was on the loose.

But local traffic police indeed found the tiger on the run. The animal was re-captured after being coaxed to go inside a series of increasingly smaller cages. It was taken back to the circus.

The mayor says it is not known how the tiger escaped from the circus, which is currently performing in the Monreale area.

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