FOXSYLVANIA

– -In a horrific attack today witnessed by audiences,  an employee at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida has died after being attacked by a killer whale.   The employee, a trainer, had just finished explaining to the audience the show that they were about to see when the veteran trainer apparently slipped and fell into the water.   The whale then suddenly came up from the water, grabbed the trainer around the waist, and according to a park guest, “thrashed her all around” to the point that the trainer’s shoe fell off.

Paramedics were summoned to the Shamu Stadium at the theme park just this Wednesday afternoon where they found the trainer who could not be revived.  The death is characterized as a drowning.  Guests were evacuated, and the park was closed.  The bull whale involved, Tilikum, is the largest Orca in captivity, weighing about 12,000 pounds.

The fatal attack was not the first time that a killer whale at a SeaWorld park has turned on a trainer, with a trainer attacked in November of 2006 but escaping with a broken foot…