A tourist's video has caught the moment two lions turned on their trainer in front of hundreds of spectators in a savage attack at an Ukrainian circus. The video, made by an American family visiting the town of Lviv in western Ukraine, shows one angered lion brushing past attempts by Oleksie Pinko, the trainer, to keep it at bay with a metal rod to bite him in the leg.
A second lion then joined in on the mauling, seizing the Mr Pinko's left arm in its jaws. As children in the audience, some of whom were just 10 feet away from the lions, screamed in terror, circus workers used high-pressure hoses and blows from metal bars in a desperate attempt to save Mr Pinko.
"I was just grabbing my daughter and trying to run because I thought they were going to get out," Masha Shepherd, the wife of Douglas Shepherd, the video maker, said. After a brief struggle the lions were driven off but they then attacked again knocking the trainer to the floor.
He eventually managed to escape, and was seen limping from the ring with blood dripping from his left arm. Mr Pinko later underwent emergency surgery in hospital, where his condition was described as "stable".
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