A trained tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of the duo Siegfried & Roy during a performance, biting his neck and dragging him off stage just feet from the audience.
Horn's manager said yesterday the illusionist underwent surgery and was in critical condition.
People attending the German-born duo's show on Friday night at The Mirage hotel-casino said the white tiger lunged at Horn shortly after he led it on stage, and that he tried to beat the animal off with a microphone.
"We honestly thought it was part of the show, we didn't know what was going on," said Sharna Wiblen, who was in the audience.
Andy Cushman, also in the audience, said Horn "looked like a rag doll" as the tiger dragged him off the stage.
The illusionist was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery to the neck area, Horn's longtime manager, Bernie Yuman, said yesterday. He said Horn's doctors said the surgery went as expected and that Horn was in critical but stable condition.
"Roy has had a rapport with exotic animals for 44 years," but he never takes that for granted, Yuman told NBC television.
"When you perform that many shows and have no incident what so ever, this is the anomaly," he said. "I would say that most of us are traumatized."
Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said Horn, who turned 59 on Friday, had a serious injury to the left side of his neck. Horn was able to talk with the ambulance staff on the way to the hospital, Clark County Fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said.
Horn, the dark-haired member of the duo, appeared alone on stage with the tiger about 45 minutes into the show and told the audience the animal was making its debut, Cushman said.
After the attack, Cushman said, Siegfried Fischbacher appeared on stage and said the performance was canceled.
Hotel officials said the show has been canceled. The tiger involved in the attack, a 7-year-old named Montecore, was quarantined at the hotel, officials said.
"Roy is a very, very strong-willed person as well as having physical strength," Yuman said. "I'm cautiously optimistic."
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings
RSS