A young seal at a Chinese aquarium died in front of horrified tourists, children among them, after its head got sucked into a drain.
The incident took place at noon on Sunday at Sun Asia Ocean World in the city of Dalian in north-eastern China’s Liaoning Province, Daily Mail reported.
Disturbing though, a video taken by one visitor, who shared it on a short-video platform, shows the seal with its head firmly stuck in a hole at the bottom of a large water tank as other seals desperately nudge the animal free by swimming around its body.
One of them was seen trying pull the trapped seal by its flippers.
A member of the staff at the park tried to yank the animal out of the drain by repeatedly pulling it but to no avail.
The ocean park said it was ‘saddened’ by the death of the aquatic mammal and was investigating the matter.
The clip then shows the worker checking the seal, believed to be dead, on shore.
According to one eyewitness, the animal carer failed to free the seal because the suction of the drain pipe was too strong.
The carer had to turn off the water pump before he dragged the mammal out of the pool, the eyewitness described in a post on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.
‘The seal’s blood turned the tank red,’ the web user lamented.
The death of the young seal has sparked outrage among the Chinese public, who accused the aquarium of avoiding its responsibility.
