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Suicidal! Man Jumps Into Lions Den After Fight With Wife

A man jumped into the enclosure of a lion cage at the Nandankanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India with the aim of committing suicide.

The man identified as Suryanarayan Das, 45, from Chhatrapur in Ganjam district, climbed over the wall and jumped into the lion’s enclosure housing the male lion, Cris, and the lioness, Priyanka.

His plan backfired when the pair of lions attacked and severely injured him but they did not kill him.

The incident took place around 1:10 pm when the security guards had gone to lunch. “As soon as Das jumped into the enclosure, the lion pounced on him, the lions returned to their cage when people started yelling,” zoo assistant director KL Purohit said.

"We have rescued Das within five minutes and he was taken to a hospital," Purohit said. After an investigation it was concluded that Das was not pushed into the enclosure instead he willingly jumped in."He touched my feet before jumping into the lion enclosure," an elderly tourist from West Bengal said.

Das suffered multiple bite wounds to his head, neck, face, legs and hands, Dr. Srikant Mohapatra who treated Das at the hospital said. Das regained consciousness in the hospital, according to a media report. Das admitted that he tried to commit suicide after constantly fighting with his wife.

Das stated he had come to the zoo seven days before the incident to look at the geographic location of the lion enclosure to see how to execute the suicide plan. Das was in stable condition, Dr. Mohapatra said.

“This is the first such incident at the zoo”, zoo director Mishra said, “We follow strict guidelines for the safety of our visitors, but If someone decides to jump inside the enclosure of animals, there is no way we can prevent it,” Mishra said.