Shocking! Lion attacks teacher during circus performance as students watch in horror [see video]

Schoolchildren on a day out at the circus were left horrified when their teacher entered the lion’s enclosure to prove the animal wasn’t aggressive – and was savagely attacked before their eyes.



The teacher, who was out with the students for a day of fun at the Monaco Circus in Cusco, Peru, was called out by the lion tamer to show her students that the animal didn’t pose a threat. Scroll down for video..

But the applause quickly turned to screams of terror when she entered the cage and the lion attacked her, dragging her out in front of the crowd with its teeth while her students watched in shock.



‘We wanted the lion to jump over but it slipped up,’ explained the animal’s owner.

The lion tamer desperately tried to free the teacher by beating the creature with a rod as it carried the woman around the ring like a ragdoll, and she was eventually freed.



Onlookers feared the worst, but the woman was immediately taken to a nearby hospital in the district of San Sebastián by one of the circus’ vans where she is recovering.



The Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture prohibits circuses from using wild and aggressive animals, as to keep them in captivity constitutes an act of cruelty.



WARNING: Video contains scenes some viewers may find disturbing