LAHORE: The remains of a teenager who had been missing for two days have been found in the lions’ enclosure at the safari park on Wednesday.
The skull and bones of 18-year-old Muhammad Bilal were discovered when staff went to feed the animals on Wednesday, Chaudhry Shafqat, deputy director general of Lahore Safari Park, said.
According to police, a young man identified as Bilal got close to a pride of lions while cutting grass in the safari park areas.The beasts attacked him and killed him on the spot.
The administration of the Safari Park launched an investigation into the matter.
His family later ransacked parts of the attraction to protest at what they said was incompetence by park authorities, police said. Members of Bilal’s family declined to comment to Reuters at the park, too upset to speak to reporters.
Shafqat told the park had “more than enough safety measures in place,” and questioned whether Bilal had been killed before his body ended up in the enclosure.
“We are still wondering how he crossed the protective fence which is quite high and entered the lions’ field,” he said, adding the young man had been missing for the past two days.
“I think the police will also investigate whether the man himself climbed the fence and went inside or someone threw his dead body inside for the lions to eat.”
He said Bilal’s family told him and the police he had gone to the park to see one of his uncles who worked there.
In a separate incident of similar in nature that took place in Karachi in the month of December, last year, a white lion had seriously injured a keeper at a zoo in the port city.