The wall surrounding Tatiana the tiger’s pen was 4ft shorter than safety guidelines

The wall surrounding the pen of a tiger that escaped and killed a teenager at San Francisco was 4ft shorter than safety guidelines, it has emerged.

Siberian tiger Tatiana went on a bloody rage at the Californian zoo earlier this week, mauling Carlos Sousa to death.

Now zoo bosses have admitted that the wall surrounding the pen was only 12.5ft high. That is 3.9ft less than the 16.4ft recommended by The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits U.S zoos.

Zoo boss Manuel Mollinedo says that AZA safety inspectors looked at the wall three years ago and did not raise any concerns.

"They never noted that as a deficiency. Obviously now that something's happened, we're going to be revisiting the actual height."

Mollinedo had previously suggested the wall was as high as 20ft, but staff got its true height by measuring it on Thursday.

A former zoo worker told the New York Post that a tiger could leap distances of 16ft if zoo visitors had taunted them.

And the unnamed worker also told the paper that taunting of the tigers at the zoo was a regular occurrence.