Overview
- On Thursday a three-year-old was discovered in the crocodile enclosure at Johnson's of Old Hurst and was pulled from the water by zoo staff before being taken to hospital with serious injuries; police say he remains in a critical but stable condition.
- Cambridgeshire Police arrested a 30-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder and say early inquiries indicate he probably did not know the child.
- Officers have opened a criminal investigation and are interviewing witnesses who were at the zoo to piece together the exact sequence of events and any possible motive.
- The zoo has closed the Tropical House and then the wider site to the public while it cooperates with police and assesses whether enclosures or visitor access controls were breached.
- The case raises urgent public-safety questions about how a young child gained access to a dangerous predator enclosure and could prompt regulatory or operational reviews of small animal parks that keep large reptiles.