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Man jumps in front of lions to attempt suicide after stripping naked
A Chilean man, Franco Luis Ferrada Roman, stripped naked in to attract two lions in a zoo after breaking into their cage on May 21. The 20-year old man horrified the sightseers, many of whom were children, by his acts. The lions had not noticed him at once when he jumped into the cage. Nevertheless, he attracted their attraction by stripping naked. The lions played with him for a while and then attacked him. After the zookeepers could not manage to arrange instantly for quick-effect tranquilizers, they had to shoot dead the two lions to save the life of the man.
The director of the zoo Alejandra Montalba stated that the zoo places the lives of its visitors on priority, but it was very painful for all of them to kill their lions. An eyewitness said that the security personnel took a long time to react to the situation. They threw water first, moved the people out and then they fired the shots. The man was admitted to hospital in a terrible condition.
A letter was also recovered from Franco’s clothes and it had Christian writings written on it. It could not be classified as a suicide note but he signed it “Jesus”. In addition, it also contained the drawings of lions. The man started yelling religious and apocalyptic things once he was in the cage. The parents had to cover their children’s eyes to prevent them from seeing this horrendous act. The police officials added that the man was mentally unstable and frustrated, probably because of his mother’s recent death.