PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - Two lions tore to shreds an extremely rare white tigress after penetrating into her cage in a Czech zoo, the director of the establishment said Thursday.

'Normally they live separately and can never come into contact with each other' said David Nejedlo, who runs Liberec zoological park, the oldest zoo in the Czech Republic.

According to Nejedlo the lions Sultan and Elsa beat the security system and managed to enter via a gate into the tigress Isabelle's cage.

The 17-year-old Isabelle, who gave birth to white tiger triplets in 1999, lasted just a few seconds in the unequal contest.

Hearing the animals roar, a breeder ran to the scene but came too late to help the tigress.

The zoo in Liberec is the only establishment in the Czech republic to breed the white tiger, of which only a few dozens remain in the world.

Isabelle was brought to Liberec in 1994 from the Swedish zoological garden in Eskilstuna. In 1999 she gave birth to Artemis, Afrodita et Achilles.

The white tiger is the most emblematic animal in the Czech zoo, founded in 1919, and the local ice hockey team are nicknamed the 'White Tigers of Liberec'.