CBS News | The Odd Truth, Nov. 3, 2004 | November 4, 2004�12:38:36:
TAIPEI, Taiwan – A lion attacked a man who jumped into the animal’s enclosure and shouted ‘Jesus will save you!’ at the big cat Wednesday at the zoo in Taiwan’s capital.
Cable TV stations showed the lion ripping a jacket off the man as he stood in a grassy enclosure that held two of the animals.
Without panicking, the man fell back on a stone ridge, and the lion then jumped at him, biting him in the arm. The lion then clawed at his trousers before retreating.
The man then calmly stood with his arms outstretched in front of the two animals.
An eyewitness, Hsu Li-jen, told cable station CTI that the man shouted ‘Jesus will save you’ at the animals.
Guards drove the lions away with water hoses, and police shot the animals with tranquilizer darts. The man, identified only by his surname, Chen, then picked up his jacket and climbed out of the pen himself. He was taken to the hospital for tests.
‘He had bite marks both at the front and back of his leg,’ Doctor Wang Yao-ching told CTI.
Another doctor said Chen, 46, also had psychological problems. ‘He took this dangerous action today because he imagined he heard voices,’ psychiatrist Teng Hui-wen told reporters, saying his case was still being investigated.
There is no truth to the rumor that Chen’s first name is Daniel.
