Lion Attacks Female Trainer During Live Performance

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Lion Attacks Female Trainer During Live Performance

A female lion tamer was mauled by a lion during a live circus performance in Egypt.

Proving that you never really tame a wild animal, here we have a circus performer getting mauled by a lion during a live performance Thursday in the Nile delta city of Tanta. The woman, Faten El-Helw, is a famed Egyptian lion trainer whose late husband, also a lion trainer, died in 2004 following injuries from a lion attack. There's a lot going on in the video, so on first viewing it's hard to tell what happens, but when you watch it again, you can see a lion crouching at the lower left corner of the screen preparing to pounce. Then it does.

Workers rushed to El-Helw's aid, and once the video picks back up on the action in the ring, we can see a man walking her out to safety. She was taken to the hospital but now appears to be resting in bed with what looks like an arm or shoulder injury.