Cameramen Encounter Siberian Tiger in Changbai Mountain

Four cameramen from two local TV stations in northeast China's Jilin Province had an narrow escape with a wild Siberian tiger on Wednesday in Hunchun Nature Reserve in Changbai Mountain and they shot the rare scene of the tiger's attack.

They were accompanied by over a dozen people from the provincial forestry administration and the nature reserve.

The tiger had a roe in its mouth when the cameramen spotted it 100 meters away.

The tiger dropped the roe when it saw the people and sprang towards them, and the four men fled in all directions. However, the tiger stopped 20 meters away, watching the men running.

The four cameramen from Jilin provincial TV station and Yanbian TV station went to Changbai Mountain to follow the tracks of a wild tiger that jumped onto the back of a farmer and bit his arm 1.5 kilometers from his village in Chunhua Town, Hunchun City on Tuesday.

The farmer was sent to Hunchun city hospital where doctors said he had an elbow fracture and injuries to his back and shoulders.

The Hunchun Nature Reserve was established in December 2001 for the protection of wild Siberian tigers and leopards.

Experts believed that there are about two to four tigers and leopards in the nature reserve.

( Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2002)