A lion has mauled to death a keeper at a zoo in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, after he forgot to close the door to the inner cage where the animal sleeps, officials say.
The lion, named Kenenisa after the famous Ethiopian athlete Kenenisa Bekele, bit Abera Silsay, 51, in the neck, they said.
The attack is said to have lasted for 15-20 minutes.
The zoo was opened in 1948 for the pet lions of former emperor Haile Selassie.
Officials say about 2,000 people visit it daily.
Guards tried to scare off the lion by firing shots into the air, but to no avail.
Mr Abera was attacked as he was cleaning the lion’s cage.
“He entered cage number 10 where Kenenisa lives and he forgot to close the door [to the lion’s sleeping chamber],” the zoo’s director general Musie Kiflom told media.
“Finally, the lion came and he mauled him,” he said.
Mr Musie told journalists that police were called to help, but it was “very difficult to save our colleague”.
Mr Abera died at the scene, he added.
The zoo is home to 15 endangered Abyssinian Lions, which are found in Ethiopia.
The lions are kept in enclosed cages, but officials plan to move the zoo to a larger, grassier enclosure in the next 13 months.
This is the second time a zookeeper has been killed by a lion at the centre in the past 17 years.
{wirestory}
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