In a shocking incident straight out of a horror film, a 53-year-old man was viciously attacked by a lion that escaped from a zoo in southern Turkey early Sunday morning. The predator, named Zeus, was eventually tracked and shot dead near a cluster of hotels in the resort town of Manavgat.
The attack happened around dawn, while the victim, Suleyman Kir, was sleeping outdoors under a blanket—a common habit in the summer heat along Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
“I heard a whisper, like something brushing against me,” Kir later told local media from his hospital bed. “I lifted the blanket and suddenly the lion was on top of me. We fought. I squeezed his neck and somehow scared him off.”
Kir suffered deep gashes to his head and shoulder and remains hospitalized in serious condition.
Zeus had reportedly broken out of his enclosure at Land of Lions, a private animal park that claims to house “the world’s largest lion family” with more than 30 big cats. The facility also keeps tigers, bears, and wolves on site. How the lion escaped remains under investigation, though early reports suggest a possible breach in the enclosure’s fencing.
Authorities responded with ground teams, helicopters, and drones to track the lion, which was located and killed just hours later near a beachfront hotel zone. Several tourists reportedly witnessed the lion roaming before it was taken down by armed wildlife officers.
Animal rights groups have criticized Land of Lions in the past for overcrowded enclosures and lax safety measures. The zoo has not released a public statement, and its website was taken offline hours after the attack.
Turkish officials have launched a formal investigation into the zoo’s practices. Meanwhile, Manavgat residents are grappling with a question no one ever thought they’d ask: how does a full-grown lion escape and stalk a sleeping man in the middle of a beach town?
“This could have been a bloodbath,” one local hotel manager told reporters. “We’re just lucky it wasn’t worse.”
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Human error. (1). Stop taking them from free living
(2). Mistreated ? That I can’t prove but most locked up are(3)
killed for what he does in its own habitat (4) not secure in cage
Sad
Hope the lion passed away quickly with little pain.
“Land Of Lions” sounds like a horror show – animals kept in bad conditions for the entertainment of stupid humans. And bred behind the scenes for canned hunts and idiotic people who want to purchase a lion, tiger, wolf …
When one acts like a predator – it always pays with its life.
I guess humanity will never learn that these animals shouldn’t be kept in sub-standard conditions. They always have a tragic ending. Another problem is …
humans are taking over every habitable inch of the Earth, and soon there’ll be NO place for these beautiful animals to live safely.
R.I.P. Zeus – you deserved better.