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The trainer attacked and killed by a whale Wednesday afternoon at SeaWorld Orlando has been identified. A sheriff’s official said Dawn Brancheau, 40, was the trainer who was killed.

Emergency personnel were called to the park just after 2 p.m. and found a person dead, according to Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the theme park after receiving a call that an employee had been attacked and injured in the “killer whale tank” in front of an audience.

Brancheau was a senior trainer at the theme park. She was pronounced dead at the park after being pulled from the tank, the sheriff’s office said.

Jim Solomons of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said she fell into the tank and, “this appears to be an accidental death.”

“It is with great sadness that I report one of our most experienced trainers has drowned in an incident with one of our whales this afternoon,” park manager Dan Brown said.

Brancheau had 16 years experience working with killer whales, the sheriff’s office said.
The park was closed because of the fatal incident, and the Sheriff’s Office is conducting a death investigation at the theme park.

“We have never in the history of our parks experienced an incident like this and all of our standard operating procedures will be under review,” Brown said.

Witness Victoria Biniak said she saw the deadly incident from a viewing area.

“The trainer was explaining different things about the whale and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window. Then Telly (the whale) took off really fast in the tank and he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing (her) around,” Biniak said. “He was thrashing her around pretty good. It was violent.”

Biniak said the attack was so violent that it caused the trainer’s shoe to fly off.

Watch dawn brancheau video Sea World Trainer Killed Home Video.