An escaped pet lion chased a woman and two children down a busy street in Pakistan’s Lahore, police said Friday, with dramatic footage showing the big cat leaping a wall before pouncing on them.
CCTV footage released by the police showed the lion jumping the barrier around its home and pursuing a woman carrying her shopping on Thursday night. The lion jumped on her back, knocking her to the ground, the footage showed.
A police report quoted the father as saying the lion then turned to his five-year-old and seven-year-old children, and clawed their arms and faces.
All three were taken to hospital but were not in a critical condition.
The owners who ran out of the house were “amused to see their lion attack” the passersby, the father added in the report.
Police said Friday that they had arrested three men.
“The suspects fled from the spot, taking the lion with them. They were arrested within 12 hours of the incident,” the office of the Deputy Inspector General Operations in Lahore told AFP.
The lion, an 11-month-old male, has been confiscated by police and sent to a wildlife park.
Officials at the facility said that the animal appears to be in good health.
Keeping exotic animals, especially big cats, as pets has long been seen as a sign of privilege and power in Punjab, the most populous province of the country.
In December 2024, an adult lion escaped from its enclosure in another neighborhood of Lahore, terrorizing residents before being shot dead by a security guard.
The incident prompted the provincial government to pass new laws regulating the sale, purchase, breeding and ownership of big cats.
The law now requires owners to obtain licenses for the animals which are barred from being kept in residential areas.
Breeders have to pay a hefty fee for registration, while farms have to be a minimum of 10 acres in size.
Big cats are imported and bred across Pakistan, seen as symbols of wealth and power to the elite that own them.
Last year, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which rules the government, banned supporters from bringing lions — the symbol of the party — to political rallies.
In late December, Pakistani YouTube star Rajab Butt was gifted a lion cub on his wedding day, and authorities quickly took notice when they saw video of the animal on social media. The next month, Butt managed to avoid jail after promising a judge to upload animal rights videos for a year.
The attack in Pakistan comes one month after a lion killed a businessman at a luxury lodge in the remote northwest of Namibia. In April, a lion killed a 14-year-old girl outside Kenya’s capital in a ranch to the south of Nairobi National Park.
