A man was attacked by three lions at a zoo in Spain after he entered the animal's enclosure and began to walk around. He was rescued by firefighters who used water sprayed from hoses to beat off the lions.
The 45-year-old man was at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in serious condition with non-life threatening injuries after he was rescued 30 minutes after the lions pounced on him inside the enclosure at Barcelona Zoo,
according to Sky News.
The man, identified by local Spanish media as Justo Jose MP, a neo-Nazi demonstrator, was wearing military clothes when he entered the area. The lions attacked him and dragged him into a service tunnel area where they continued to maul him,
reported the Daily Mail.
Firefighters used powerful water hoses to force the lions away from Jose in order to rescue him. They said they didn't believe he could have entered the area accidently and didn't know if his actions were part of some demonstration.
"The security system makes it impossible for a person to fall into the enclosure," said Hector Carmona, chief firefighter of the Bomberos de Barcelona. "It cannot have been by accident, to enter (the enclosure) you have to want to go in,"
Zookeepers did not blame the lions in the incident.
"The intention was not to kill him, they were just trying to play with him," said Ignasi Armengol, director of Barcelona Municipal Services.
According to the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Jose is known in the city for his demonstrations, including an abortion protest by clinging to La Pedrera, a modernist building in Barcelona.
In another incident, La Vanguardia reported that Jose was arrested in September for burning the Catalan flag at the statue of Rafael Casanovas, the commander in chief of Catalonia during the Siege of Barcelona in the 18th century.
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