A circus lion startled by the audience at a show in east China's
Anhui Province leapt a barrier and plunged
into the crowd, injuring three people including a woman who
suffered a miscarriage, the Xinhua News Agency reported
yesterday.
The lion was shot dead in the early hours of Tuesday morning
after police failed to trap it for more than 7 hours, the report
said. The 4-year-old female lion was performing on Monday night in
Mingguang, a city about 150 kilometers northeast of Hefei, Anhui's
capital.
The report said the lion was already upset when it was caged in
front of the circus to attract customers after being transported
from its home in neighboring Jiangsu Province. The audience of more
than 200 people were very noisy when the lion was brought out for
the final show.
Suddenly it leapt over the 2-meter-high protection fence into
the panicked crush of spectators. People started escaping in chaos,
and many people were stepped on and injured.
The lion escaped the circus and ran down an alley.
"One pregnant woman was crushed and suffered a miscarriage from
the shock," Xinhua said.
"Because the lion was rented, it didn't trust the trainers."
Later police found the lion lying in a vegetable field and
immediately marked off an area around it. But because of the
holiday, police were unable to get anaesthetic dart guns. They
tried to trap the animal using nets, rope loops and cage loops.
However, the lion escaped over high barriers with circus staff
and police chasing after. When the lion further threatened people's
lives after reaching residential gardens, Mingguang officials
finally decided to kill it.
(China Daily October 6, 2006)