WILD TIGER SENSATION

Evening Star, Issue 21621, 17 January 1934, Page 12

WILD TIGER SENSATION

ESCAPE FROM A CAGE THRILLING SIEGE IK CELLAR An' untamed tiger kept trainer, firemen, and police at bay for oven- three hours in the Sheffield Empire Theatre a few weeks ago after escaping from its cage and badly mauling a man. Infuriated by. blows rained upon it by men who rescued the injured man. the beast took refuge in a cellar, where it was ultimately recaptured after a thrilling siege. The injured man is Ernest George Dalton, _ aged thirty, of Brixham, Devonshire. He went to clean out the cages at the back of the Empire stage and in some unexplained way the tiger escaped and leapt upon him. He shouted for help, and half a dozen attendants on the staff of the circus which was ,at the theatre rushed up. ,Thev beat the tiger off with shovels and bars, and dragged Dalton away and out into .the street through the stage door. The man was taken to hospital and detained. While this was happening the tiger dashed into the cellars. Three doors wgre quickly closed behind him. There were six women cleaners in the theatre at the time, two of them being in the pit on a level with the stage. They were terror-stricken, and their screams mingled'-with the roars of the tiger. When Dalton, was attacked one of the women, Mrs Florence Hirst, was actually in the cellar. She heard Dalton’s screams, and rushed up the steps, colliding at the top with a gas meter inspector. Both fell and rolled down the steps into the cellar, but they jumped 'up and dashed into the street just before the tiger refuge in the cellar. ' All doors of the theatre were closed and barred, and attendants endeavoured to pacify the beast by throwing large pieces of meat to it in the. cellar. Greatly' daring, Superintendent Breaks, of the Sheffield Fire Brigade, and .the trainer, together with firemen and police, went into the cellar and managed to drive the animal into a corner by playing water on it from a hosepipe. .The tiger rushed into the band room under the stage, and the door was slammed to and locked. Attendants then built a tunnel of iron cage sections lashed together with rope around the band room door, and up to the steps on to the stage into the animal’s cape. . While the men were working the tiger could be heard in the room, and it was afterwards found that he had wrecked the contents, overturning instruments, and ripping up the upholstery of the chairs. Playing their hoses upon the tiger,, firemen drove it through the hnprovised tunnel and into its cage. Dalton was terribly injured in the hack, and his shoulder was nearly bitten through.