A man has been mauled to death by lions after scaling a 9 metre wall into their zoo enclosure.
He was set upon by two lions as a bus full of fellow zoo visitors watched on in horror.
The driver of the bus which ferries the visitors inside the park noticed the man and informed zoo officials.
Immediately the lion area was closed as police reached the man at the Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park in India.
The identity of the man is yet to be confirmed and police are reportedly waiting for someone to claim his body before conducting the post-mortem.
Punjab chief wildlife warden, Kuldeep Kumar said: “An unidentified man somehow managed to scale the 9 metre high boundary wall and jumped inside the safari in the zoo.
“The quick response team of the zoo swung into actions as soon as they spotted the encroacher and alerted the other staff members on duty in the safari.
“They closed the safari and then rushed to rescue the man.
“They managed to release the man from the jaws of the lions in four to five minutes and then rushed him to the hospital in a critical condition.”
The man was declared brought dead on arrival at the hospital.
“The deceased had major injuries on his right eye, neck and scratches on his chest and thigh,” said the doctors on duty at the hospital.
“No mobile phone or any other items revealing the identity of the deceased could be recovered from him.
“We will give an advertisement in the newspaper tomorrow about him, and if nobody arrives for him, then after seventy two hours the post-mortem will be conducted,” said a police official.-SDE w:”hid