Lion loose in Essex

A lion has been reported to be on the loose near Clacton, Essex. Residents of a village where the lion...

15:54 27 August 2012

A lion has been reported to be on the loose near Clacton, Essex. Residents of a village where the lion was last spotted have raised their concerns with the authorities. The police has launched a full scale search for the predator which includes two helicopters and around 30 police officers, some of them armed.

 

Rich Baker who was taking a walk in the fields with his two boys, aged 9 and 11 was one of the first people to encounter the lion. He said, "A man started running towards us yelling "It’s a ******* lion!" He looked so panicked you knew it was not a joke.  I grabbed my children and we ran towards our caravan. My children started to scream, “daddy, is the lion going to get us?”

 

Essex police believed that the various reports coming in for the lion-sighting to be genuine, when various people called in and a group of people walking close to the fields took a photograph of the animal. 

 

The authorities were working with experts from Colchester Zoo to track down the animal last night. They said that they will try to tranquilise the creature if they found it.