Man who jumped into tiger enclosure was former child actor who starred in ITV and BBC shows
The man who died after jumping into a tiger enclosure has been identified as William Chapman, and he was a child actor who appeared on the BBC and ITV.
On 10 October he jumped into the enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park where he was seriously injured, with him being pronounced dead at the scene.
The wildlife park has been closed ever since then, though they've confirmed that the tiger named Altai will not be put down as a consequence, and more details about the man have since emerged.
The BBC reported that Chapman was in his mid 20s and as a child had been in the 2009 ITV show May Contain Nuts which starred Shirley Henderson, while he also played famous scientist Edward Jenner in the BBC's True Stories learning video in 2012.
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His IMDb profile shows no further acting credits afterwards.
South Yorkshire Police have asked people not to share social media footage of Chapman being attacked in the tiger enclosure.
Witnesses to the attack have said everything happened very suddenly.
A woman named Alice who was at the wildlife park told LADbible it was all ‘very sudden’ with ‘a member of staff running around telling people to evacuate but wouldn't say anything about why’.
“It felt chaotic. People near us were saying how they'd been near the tiger enclosure when they'd seen a young man climbing the fence into the enclosure where he had provoked the tigers which then retaliated,” she said.
“Some saying the tigers were shot, others saying it was gas canisters to spook them into their enclosures.
“When we left we had to walk the length of the park and pass nearby the tiger enclosure and could see emergency services dealing with the scene from afar but not close enough to make out any casualties etc.
“I was with friends and their young children. Thankful we weren't in the area at the time.”
Another witness told the Mail on Sunday they'd seen Chapman 'dancing' with his earphones in and said he'd asked a stranger to take a photo of him with the tiger in the background just before entering the enclosure.
Footage circulated online which appears to be from Chapman himself indicates that he filmed the tiger after he'd entered the animal's enclosure, with a short clip showing the camera a few metres away from a wooden platform upon which the big cat was perched.
The sound of people shouting for the person filming to get out of there could be heard in the background.
Ella Ford had been at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on that day with her boyfriend and described to the BBC how Chapman had been 'pacing around with his headphones in' before he 'climbed up onto the barriers' and then 'crawled in front of the tiger'.
She said he started shouting for help when the tiger attacked him.
Altai is one of two Amur tigers at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, and shares his two-acre enclosure with tigeress Tschuna. He was born in Norway and moved to the park last year.
It's estimated there are only 500 Amur tigers in the world. They are one of the largest big cats and males can grow up to 160-190kg.
In the wild, they tend to live between 10 and 15 years, but in captivity they can live up to 20 years.
Joe Harker