22-Year-Old Woman Killed by Escaped Lion: 'She Died Following Her Passion,' Says Family

A conservatory lion escaped from a locked area and attacked and killed a 22-year-old intern on Sunday, according to authorities.

The horrifying accident occurred at the Conservators Center in Burlington, North Carolina, where Alexandra Black had recently begun an internship, according to a statement from the Conservators Center obtained by PEOPLE.

“Alex was working with one of our husbandry teams cleaning a lion enclosure, when a lion who had been locked into a separate holding enclosure somehow managed to enter the enclosure in which our team was working and killed Alex,” the statement said, adding that “no other humans were injured.”

“When our husbandry teams clean big cat enclosures they follow a safety protocol that involves moving the cats into a separate space and securing them before humans enter the adjacent space. The specifics of what happened are still under investigation,” the statement continued.

After failing to tranquilize the lion, the animal was killed by the Caswell County Sheriff’s Department so that Black’s body could be safely retrieved, the Caswell County Sheriff’s Office said in the statement, according to USA Today.

The lion, a 14-year-old male named Matthai, was born at the animal sanctuary.

The Caswell County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

“Although Alex was with us for a very short time, she made an impact on our community. We are a close-knit family of paid staff and volunteers and are devastated by the loss of this vibrant, smart young woman,” the statement from the Conservators Center added.

“This is the worst day of my life,” the executive director of the Conservators Center, Mindy Stinner, told Raleigh ABC affiliate WTVD. “We’ve lost a person. We’ve lost an animal. We have lost the faith in ourselves a little today.”

Stinner went on to share that the Conservators Center, which is closed until further notice, will be re-evaluating safety protocols to ensure that the facility is “safe for our people and for the public.”

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Black’s family is mourning the death of their “beautiful, intelligent, passionate” daughter.

“Alex loved animals,” her family said in a statement, according to the local ABC affiliate. “She was a beautiful young woman who had just started her career, there was a terrible accident, and we are mourning. But she died following her passion.”

The incident is currently being investigated by the Caswell County Sheriff’s Office, according to USA Today.