A pet lion escaped from its home in Lahore, Pakistan, on the 5th of July, and attacked a woman and her three young children.
The incident happened in the eastern city of Lahore, where the lion jumped over a concrete wall and chased the family.
The attack left the woman and her children, aged five and seven, with injuries on their arms and faces, while the third escaped without any injuries.
They have been treated and are now in stable condition.
The lion’s owners have been arrested by the police for keeping the wild animal without a proper license and for negligence that allowed the lion to escape.
In Pakistan, owning big cats like lions, tigers, cheetahs, pumas, and jaguars is legal if the owners register the animals and pay a one-time fee of 50,000 rupees (around \$176).
However, due to the number of wild animals incidents over the years, worldwide, including but not limited to the Bengal Tiger circus attack, and the infamous Travis the Chimp incident of 2009, the animals must be kept outside city limits to minimize such incidents
Lahore, where this attack took place, is a large city in Punjab province, and keeping such animals inside the city goes against the rules.
The father of the children said the lion’s owners did not try to stop the attack or control the animal while it was harming his family. The CCTV footage shows the woman struggling to get away and then running to get help while people nearby fled in fear.
Following the attack, authorities in Punjab began a strict operation against illegal wildlife ownership.
This effort has led to the arrest of five people and the recovery of 13 lions so far. The government is working to prevent similar dangerous incidents from happening again.