A 25-year-old mentally unstable man jumped inside the enclosure of a lion in the Delhi zoo on Thursday. The man escaped unhurt after the zoo staff acted quickly and tranquillised the big cat.
The man has been identified as Rehan Khan, a native of Bihar’s East Champaran district and presently living in North East Delhi’s Seelampur area. According to a senior police official, the incident happened at beat number 17 at around 12.30 PM on Thursday.
“The situation is under control now. Rehan Khan was rescued by the zoo staff and handed over to the police. Khan did not sustain any
injury and seems to be mentally disturbed,” said the senior police official,” said the senior police official adding that police teams are questioning him. A zoo official said the man went near the animal, sat down and started teasing it. The feline, however, did not attack him.
The onlookers kept shouting, asking him to come back, but he did not pay any heed, the official said.
When the zoo staff entered the enclosure to save the man, he started running towards the lion, another official said.
A video of the incident, which occurred around 12:30 pm, soon became viral. The video clip showed the man squatting down on a plank in front of the animal. He lied down and quickly rose to a sitting position again. The lion moved around man before pushing him lightly with its paws.
In September 2014, a white tiger had mauled a man to death after he had jumped inside the animal’s enclosure