London zoo's newborn Sumatran tiger cub dies

London zoo's newborn Sumatran tiger cub has died, it emerged on Tuesday.

The cub, not yet named or sexed as it was so young, was born two weeks ago, and the birth captured on hidden cameras in the den. It was the first tiger to be born at the zoo for 17 years.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, keepers noticed that they could not see the cub on the den cameras, and raised the alarm. The cub was discovered on the edge of the pool.

A postmortem conducted on Sunday confirmed the cub had drowned. It is thought that the mother, Melati, carried the cub outside but keepers are unclear as to how the cub got into the pool as there are no cameras in the wider enclosure.

Keepers are reviewing the situation as it was not envisaged that the mother would take the cub outside so early.

Curator Malcolm Fitzpatrick said: "We're heartbroken by what's happened. To go from the excitement of the birth to this in three weeks is just devastating.

"Melati can be a very nervous animal and we didn't want to risk putting her on edge by changing her surroundings or routines, in case she abandoned or attacked the cub. At the time we thought it was in the best interests of Melati and her cub to allow her continued access to the full enclosure as normal.

"We would do anything to turn back the clock, and nobody could be more upset about what's happened than the keepers who work with the tigers every day. They are devoted to those tigers and are distraught."

London zoo's £3.6m Tiger Territory opened in March 2013 and was designed to encourage breeding of the critically endangered sub-species of tiger.

The cub is the grandchild of the zoo's last tiger cub, Hari, the father of Melati. The cub's father is five-year-old Jae Jae, who played no part in taking care of the new arrival.

A spokeswoman for the zoo said the mood was very sad and sombre, and that staff had been told, but not visitors.