Chinese authorities have fatally shot a lion they said escaped from a zoo and killed a keeper.
BBC News reported that the 65-year-old keeper was attacked and mauled to death by the animal Sunday while he was cleaning out the lion’s cage at Taian Tiger Mountain Park in Shandong.
According to the Chinese state media agency Xinhua, after mauling the keeper, the big cat got out of its cage and was loose inside the zoo for hours.
Guests and staff at the park were evacuated while the lion roamed free and a police spokesman said that eventually officials cornered the animal by a wall and shot it.
Several people began debating on a popular Chinese microblog network as to whether or not it was absolutely necessary for officials to kill the feline.
This is not the first time zookeepers in China have been attacked and killed by large cats when attempting to clean their cages. Since 2010, three zoo employees suffered fatal injuries. All three of those incidents involved tigers.
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