Updated March 08, 2017 12:26:04

Photo: Four-year-old white rhinoceros was fatally shot by poachers. (AP: Domaine de Thoiry)

Poachers have broken into a French zoo, shot dead a rare white rhinoceros and cut off its horn, in what is believed to be the first time in Europe a rhino in captivity has been attacked and killed.

Vince, a four-year-old male white rhino, was found dead in his enclosure by his keeper at the Thoiry Zoo and Wildlife Park about 50 kilometres west of Paris on Tuesday morning (local time) after an overnight break-in, the zoo said.

Police, who were investigating the crime, said the rhino had been shot three times in the head and one of its horns had been sawn off, probably with a chainsaw.

Photo: White rhinoceros Bruno (R) and Gracie in their enclosure at Thoiry zoo, where four-year-old Vince was shot dead. (Reuters: Christian Hartmann)

The Thoiry Zoo is famous for its safari park that can only be explored from inside a vehicle

Global trade in rhino horn is banned by a UN convention and its sale is illegal in France.

But demand for the horn is strong in newly affluent Asian countries — such as Vietnam, where it is prized as an ingredient in traditional medicines — and African authorities have struggled to counter rampant poaching.

AP/Reuters

Topics: animal-welfare, france

First posted March 08, 2017 11:03:56