In a bone-chilling incident on Thursday, a man jumped inside the enclosure of a lion at the Delhi Zoo and sat face-to-face with the wild animal for some time. A video of the incident went viral, in which the man can be seen crossing into the lion enclosure and walking around the animal.
Alert zoo staff, however, acted quickly and brought the man, who is said to be mentally unstable, out safely by tranquilizing the big cat.
Heartstopping visuals from the Zoo show the 28-year-old Rehan Khan spending several moments sitting face to face with the big cat and appeared to be talking to it and even casually lay down, before Zoo officials rescued him before any harm.
Both the lion and the man are seen staring at each other. Watch the video here:
#WATCH Delhi: A man entered into enclosure of a lion at Delhi Zoo after climbing its metal grille. He was later brought out safely. DCP(Southeast)says "He's Rehan Khan, a 28-yr-old man from Bihar. He seems to be mentally unstable.He was immediately brought out without any injury" pic.twitter.com/t5n6bfPx7p
— ANI (@ANI) October 17, 2019
Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) told news agency ANI: "He is Rehan Khan, a 28-yr-old man from Bihar. He seems to be mentally unstable. He was immediately brought out without any injury."
Riyaz Ahmed Khan, PRO, National Zoological Park said after Rehan Khan jumped into the lion's enclosure, guards tried to stop him.
"He kept telling us that he has come to die and to not rescue him. We rushed to the spot and gave him a ladder to step out but he did not listen. Then we tranquilised the lion and rescued him," the official said.
In another similar incident which took place on September 2014, a mentally challenged man was mauled to death by a white tiger at the Delhi Zoo. The deceased was identified as Maqsood, a factory worker and resident of Anand Parbat area of the national capital.
