Cameras capture mother dropping daughter into bear enclosure
A woman has dropped her toddler into a bear enclosure at a zoo in Uzbekistan. This incident follows her husband leaving to work in Russia to escape poverty.
The woman, who had become very depressed, was caught on camera approaching the bear enclosure at the zoo in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent and deliberately dropping the child over the railings.
Zookeepers ran into the enclosure and rescued the girl.
Officials later said the unnamed woman now faces charges of attempted murder, with a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail.
"The woman has been depressed as her husband left for Russia and no longer lives with her," the Uzbek health ministry said.
The woman has been identified as a 30-year-old university lecturer who has two children and lives with her elderly father.
Footage released by Uzbek authorities showed that the grizzly bear was initially scared off by something dropping from the sky into the moat just below the railings, before he rushed to come closer to the girl, and then went away again.
"It's scary to even think what could have happened if the bear had reacted to the child as a predator to a prey," the zoo said.
The three-year-old was taken to hospital with a concussion sustained from the fall, but her life is not in danger.
Image: Getty