Endangered Siberian tiger attacks villager

Villagers in China’s far northeast were left terrified when a Siberian tiger pounced on a field worker and attacked a car near the remote border with Russia, media reported.

The male juvenile tiger was first spotted on Friday roaming close to Linhu Village in Heilongjiang Province, according to Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper, citing local police.

“It turned in the direction of two villagers working in the field,” said Wang Xue, who had driven to the site to pick up a relative.

“I shouted at them to run, but the tiger then ran straight in my direction,” Wang was quoted as saying by the Beijing News.

“In two or three seconds, it ran over and pounced on my car, clawing at it with its paws.”

The car’s exterior was heavily scratched and the back passenger window shattered.

“I was terrified, and am still suffering from heart issues,” said Wang. Neither of the two passengers inside the car was hurt.

Video footage also showed the tiger pouncing on a villager working in the field, before running off. The worker suffered minor injuries.

Police managed to eventually corner and subdue the animal with tranquilizer darts.

According to the Heilongjiang Forestry Bureau, the big cat was put into a 45-day disease quarantine at the Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Center in Mudanjiang City. The wild Siberian tiger is a healthy male aged 2 to 3 years and weighing 225 kilograms, according to a Xinhua report.

The Siberian tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, is highly endangered, numbering just a few hundred, of which 20 are sometimes seen in two northeastern Chinese provinces, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.