Luxor4u

A crowd watched on in horror as a lion tamer was mauled to death during show in Egypt.

Footage shows trainer Islam Shaheen, 35, inside an enclosure with two trainers and three lions in Alexandria, in the north of the country.

As dance music is heard in the background, Mr Shaheen, who had been a lion tamer for ten years, waved a large stick in the air beckoning one of the 200kg animals towards him, while another climbed a ladder. .

The third lion then pounced on Mr Shaheen, mauling his neck. The video, taken by an audience member shows the lion rearing on its legs and pinning the trainer to the ground.

As he lay motionless on the ground, the two other trainers rushed to help him and pull the lion off. Mr Shaheen was rushed to Adalusian Salam hospital where he passed away days later.

WARNING: The Video under the spoiler shows a lion attacking a man.

Spoiler

He is said to have suffered a fractured skull, deep cuts to his face and neck, broken bones in his chest and abdominal bleeding.

The lion was a new addition to the show and brought over from South Africa. It was apparently in mating season, causing it to behave erratically, according to Yahoo News.

It has now been pulled from the show and will be examined by a vet.

No sympathy from me, keeping lions in a circus belongs to Roman times, not the modern day.

Horus wrote:No sympathy from me, keeping lions in a circus belongs to Roman times, not the modern day.

Totally agree Horus.

Yes, all so called 'lion tamers' should suffer such a fate until there are non left.

Reading the above comments, I may not be on my own in cheering for the bull when I see them torturing them in Spain.

Passed an advert for the circus today, off Khaled Ibn El Whaleed St, looks like it might be coming here soon.

I will never forget my evening at the Circus in Luxor. It was about 10 years ago and based in the Karnak area I think. I found myself promising a friend a trip there as a birthday treat as he'd never been to one and his friends had recently been and enjoyed it. I'm not sure why I said I'd treat him to this as I've never been that keen on the circus. It was awful from beginning to end. As people were arriving there were a couple of staff dragging round a lion cub (at least that's what I think it was) on a lead for people to have their photographs taken with it. All the big brave young men were queuing up for this. The poor thing was either sick or drugged or both as it could barely move. Those big brave young men, some in uniform, were not so brave when the caging went up for the lion act. That was scary as I'm not sure the fencing would have held a healthy lion back if it had wanted to take a leap at it, and I was sitting at the front!
One of the other acts was a snake charmer. The only reason the snake hug to woman's body was to try and get a bit of warmth. It was after all, a cold January night.
I've never been tempted to visit a circus since and not likely to ever again, at least no one involving animals of any kind.

Its the same as dressing up a magnificent animal like an Elephant and making it stand on its back legs, we should all know better by now.

There's two guys running down the road yelling "Help! Help! A lions escaped"
A passerby said "Which way did it go?" One of the guys says
"You stupid idiot, you don't think we're chasing it do ya?" .....

Horus wrote:Reading the above comments, I may not be on my own in cheering for the bull when I see them torturing them in Spain.

Some of the very best TV I've seen concerned a Spanish bull fight, the bull speared the guys scrotum then tossed him over his shoulders, something that the Matador in question will be unable to do for the remainder of his life.

I had visited the Circus in 2010 in Luxor. Two friends were taking me. I had no idea it was a circus as they spoke little English. One kept growling. When we arrived I was pleasantly surprised. A Circus in Luxor...wow! I was not permitted to video. The allotted photographer quickly pounced once I began filming. The show was as i had found circus ro be in England until the end.It was not until the end the Lions came on. This conflicted with my own beliefs. I had not expected to see big cats as in the UK we have almost eliminated animals from the circus with the exception of birds as found in Zippo circus an act that dates back to my childhood. Animals belong in their natural habitat or cared for in a well kept zoo although even that leaves me uneasy seeing them contained. Egyptian zoos have some of the worst reputations on account of the condition and treatment of the animals. Equally so with sea life centres. Animals should not be made to perform. They should certainly do not exist for the sport of spoilt American dentists. It is sad if someone is torn to death, however the Lion was acting on it's own innate nature. If you play with fire you will get burnt.

I believe that to prevent a recurrence of this happening again in Egypt they are only using veterinarian lions in future shows.