ISTANBUL: A lion that escaped a theme park near the Turkish resort of Antalya was shot dead Sunday after attacking a man, the local governor and media reports said. The lion, reportedly named Zeus, escaped his enclosure at the Land of Lions animal theme park in Manavgat, some 60 kilometres west of Antalya in the early hours of the morning, the local governor said in a statement.

According to BirGun newspaper, the lion then attacked an agricultural worker called Suleiman Kir who was asleep in a pistachio field with his wife. Kir then tussled with the lion before it ran off. He was injured but not badly and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

“We were covered with blankets to protect ourselves from mosquitoes and when the prayer call sounded, I tried to stand up but I couldn’t,” he told the newspaper.

“Suddenly I felt something touch my left foot and when I eventually managed to get up, I saw it was something huge—I thought it was a dog.” In a video posted online, he described the moments wrestling with the lion. “We called for help but there was no-one around. As the lion was biting my calf and my neck, I grabbed him around the neck and began to squeeze, and he backed off. At that moment, the security forces came,” he said.

“If I had not been strong, I wouldn’t be here right now.” Antalya’s governor said in a statement that the lion had been tracked down and shot dead. “It was not possible to catch the escaped lion alive because it posed a danger to people and the environment so it was shot,” he said, indicating that an investigation had been opened into the incident. BirGun newspaper said there were around 30 big cats at the Land of Lions. – AFP