Australian Girl Hurt in Attack by Kangaroo

PERTH, Australia —  A huge red kangaroo grabbed a 12-year-old girl by the throat at an Easter barbecue and had to be killed with a fence post when it returned to the attack after being dragged off by the tail, the girl’s mother said today.

Katie Schmidt was badly scratched and bitten on the head, ear and neck and her father, Wayne, 40, was mauled by the 6-foot-tall animal as he went to her rescue.

The attack occurred in the remote bush town of Nungaloo in western Australia.

Three men dragged the kangaroo away by the tail but it came back again. A local farmer finally pulled up a fence post and bludgeoned the animal to death.

“I’m sure many people think ‘roos are tame little things,” the girl’s mother, Joan Schmidt, said.

“We were amazed at what we saw,” said farmer Kevin Hipper. “The ‘roo had Katie by the throat and she was screaming. Wayne started to yell and started punching the ‘roo. It turned on him and started to bite him.”

Hipper and two other men pulled the kangaroo off the father and daughter, then had to kill it when it returned, he said.

“The little girl was lucky that the kangaroo was backed up against a car when it attacked her and couldn’t use its back legs. Otherwise it could have killed her,” Hipper said.