ISTANBUL >> A farmer was seriously injured when he was attacked by a lion that had escaped a zoo in southern Turkey on Sunday, local media reported. The lion was later shot dead.

The male lion, named Zeus, escaped his cage at Land of Lions in Manavgat, a resort city on the Mediterranean coast, in the early hours, the private Demiroren News Agency said. A few hours later, he attacked the 53-year-old man, who was sleeping outdoors after watering pistachio trees.

“I heard a whispering sound. When I lifted the blanket, the lion fell on me,” Suleyman Kir told the agency. “We struggled and fought. ... I grabbed his neck and squeezed. At that moment, he ran off a little.”

— The Associated Press