In a national park on Sumatra Island, Indonesia, six men were attacked by tigers and one was mauled to death after the men accidentally killed a tiger cub, BBC News reports. The remaining five men are have been trapped in a tree for nearly four days, and help likely won't arrive until Wednesday.
"It might need two or three days to walk on foot to the depths of the jungle," said police chief Dicky Sondani. A 30-member search team entered the jungle on Saturday, but as the park covers nearly 3,060 square miles, officials say it could take a while for rescue crews to arrive on the scene.
Villagers have already tried to rescue the men themselves, but retreated after seeing at least four large Sumatran tigers circling the tree in which the men are hiding.
The men accidentally killed a tiger cub while searching the jungle for wood to make a rare incense, setting traps for deer and inadvertently killing a young tiger in the process. The dying tiger cub attracted fully grown tigers who proceeded to attack the men. A 28-year old man named David was mauled to death while the others managed to take refuge in a nearby tree as the tigers circled from below.
"If the tigers remain under the tree, we may have to shoot or sedate them to rescue the five people," Sondani told BBC News.
The men used their cell phones to call local villagers who then rushed to the scene to try and rescue them, but to no avail. The six men are all from Simpang Kiri village in the Aceh Tamiang district.
"People keep entering the jungle to look for the [incense] wood because it's very expensive," the police chief said. "But that's the risk: there are many tigers and elephants in Gunung Leuser jungle."
Sumatran tigers are a critically endangered species only found on Sumatra Island, with as little as 350 remaining in the wild. Large tiger populations live in Gunung Leuser national park where the men were attacked.
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