June hasn't been a great month so far for zoo publicity—and it just got a little bit worse. According to The Times of India, a 35-year-old man got tipsy on Sunday and decided to head to the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, India. While there, he got the bright idea to jump into a lion's enclosure, and as you might expect, that turned out to be a terrible decision. The man, who was later identified as an L&T Metro Rail employee named Mukesh, escaped the lion's den unharmed, but it looks like it was a very scary ordeal.
In a video of the incident, several people gathered near the lion enclosure who witnessed Mukesh jump into the den can be heard screaming and yelling, apparently frightened by the possibility that they might see a man get mauled to death by one of the lions. You can watch that video here:
The Times of India is reporting that Mukesh was at the zoo with five friends when he climbed into the lion's den and proceeded to get into the moat inside of the enclosure as zoo officials yelled at him to stop. There were two lions in the enclosure at the time, and one, the lioness, began to approach Mukesh. But fortunately for him, the large cats' handler directed the lions away from Mukesh.
According to Buzzfeed, Mukesh was trying to shake hands with the lions and shouting, "Please come to me, my darling, please," when zoo authorities entered the enclosure and removed him from harm's way.
Local authorities are investigating the events that led up to Mukesh ending up in the lion's den, and needless to say, he has been banned from the zoo.
