A ZOOKEEPER has been mauled to death by a lion in a horrifying attack after he left open a gate while feeding the beast.
Olabode Olawuyi raised the powerful male lion since birth before it turned on him in the savage ambush as onlookers were forced to watch on in disbelief.
A man has been mauled to death by a lion at a zoo
People ran to the enclosure with guns to try and save Olawuyi
Olabode Olawuyi died in the horror mauling
Olawuyi – from Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) – was attacked as he was feeding the lions like usual, the university said in a statement.
Chilling footage taken moments after the attack shows his colleagues storming the enclosure with guns as others stayed by the zookeeper to give him emergency first aid.
But the lion had already fatally wounded Olawuyi as he laid on the floor with blood pouring from his head and chest.
He sacrificed his own life to help another person being attacked first, say reports.
The lion was put down by zoo staff.
Olawuyi, a veterinary technologist, had been “taking care of the lions since they were born on campus about nine years ago”.
The university’s spokesman, Abiodun Olarewaju continued: “But, tragically, the male lion killed the man who had been feeding them.
“We never knew what came over the male lion that it had to attack (him).
The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) said in a statement: “The NAAT-OAU, the entire OAU community and the National leadership of NAAT mourns this immense loss and honour his decade-long commitment to the zoological Garden and the care he provided to its animals.”
Vice-Chancellor at OAU, Professor Adebayo Simeon Bamire, said a complete and comprehensive investigation into how such a horrific event could have unfolded has been ordered.
The students’ union leader, Abbas Akinremi, told Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper the attack was down to “human error” due to the door being left unlocked.
Abbas described the chilling attack as unfortunate before calling Olawuyi a “good and humble man, who attended to us nicely whenever we went to the zoo”.
A similar incident happened in Japan last year when a worker was seen being dragged inside a lion’s cage before being fatally bitten in the neck.
The veteran employee, Kenichi Kato, had been transferring the lion when it slipped through an open cage door.
The attack happened as the door was left opened to the lion’s enclosure
The attack happened at the Obafemi Awolowo University
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