A man shouting "God will save me if he exists", lowered himself by a rope into the big cats’ enclosure in Kiev zoo, Ukraine, on Sunday, 4 June, when the zoo was packed with visitors. He then took his shoes off and went up to the lions. A lioness knocked him down and severed his carotid artery, killing him instantly. Lions and tigers are kept in an “animal island” protected by thick concrete blocks.

5 June 2006.