Drunken man viciously attacked by lion after he tries petting it in zoo

In a shocking incident, a drunken man’s arm was mauled by a lion after he tried stroking it through the bars of its cage.

A video footage, filmed at the Rosy Walther Zoo in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, captured the man as he waved his arm through the metal bars.

It turns out that the lion, which was lying on a rock a few years away, initially ignored the man’s persistent taunts. However, eventually he jumped down from his spot and bounded over towards the apparently drunk man.

A woman said: 'It's moving, it's moving', before adding to the man: 'You're crazy!'

The man quickly withdrew his arm as the lion approached, but decided to reach out again to pet it on the back as his friends laugh at his antics.

It was that that the big cat whipped around and grabbed the man's arm in its powerful jaws.

The man was later seen in a car with his badly injured arm resting on the open window. There were several deep teeth marks on his blood-splattered arm. He was taken to a local hospital.

According to eyewitnesses, the man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol at the time and had reportedly entered the zoo with a group of friends and walked close to the lion's cage without zookeepers noticing.