{"id":294334,"date":"2025-12-02T05:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T05:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/294334\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T05:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T05:39:10","slug":"teenager-mauled-to-death-by-lion-at-zoo-after-climbing-into-enclosure-in-front-of-shocked-onlookers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/294334\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenager mauled to death by lion at zoo after climbing into enclosure in front of shocked onlookers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 19-year-old man has been killed in Brazil after climbing into a lion’s enclosure at a zoo in front of a crowd of horrified visitors. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, Gerson de Melo Machado entered the predator\u2019s pen at the Arruda C\u00e2mara Zoobotanical Park in the Brazilian coastal city of Jo\u00e3o Pessoa. <\/p>\n

Footage of the incident showed the teenager clinging to a tree after climbing over a 20-foot wall to enter the enclosure.<\/p>\n

Tragedy struck when the lioness, named Leona, attacked him after he stepped down from the tree.<\/p>\n

\"Gerson<\/p>\n

Footage of the incident showed the teenager climbing over a 20ft wall to enter the enclosure<\/p>\n

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After the incident, vets described Leona as \u201cin shock\u201d and in a \u201cstressed” state. <\/p>\n

Brazilian media outlets reported that Arruda C\u00e2mara Zoobotanical Park was closed following the death, with no reopening date confirmed.<\/p>\n

Mr Machado is believed to have suffered from severe mental health issues and spent most of his life in the country\u2019s care system.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old is also said to have had a fascination with big cats.<\/p>\n

\"Leona<\/p>\n

After the incident, vets described Leona as ‘in shock’ and in a ‘stressed’ state<\/p>\n

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He had previously attempted to reach Africa as a plane stowaway to pursue his dream of becoming a lion trainer.<\/p>\n

Correctional officer Ed Alves said Mr Machado had been arrested 16 times, ten of them while he was under 18.<\/p>\n

Local media outlets have reported that the teenager had previously attempted to enter the lion’s enclosure.<\/p>\n

His former child protection worker, Veronica Oliveira, said that Mr Machado had a troubled family life and had grown up in extreme poverty. <\/p>\n

WORLD NEWS – READ THE LATEST:<\/p>\n

\"Gerson<\/p>\n

Mr Machado had been arrested 16 times, ten of them while he was under 18<\/p>\n

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Ms Oliveira revealed that his mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. <\/p>\n

She told a Brazilian outlet: \u201cGerson was a child who suffered violations of his rights.”<\/p>\n

Remembering his goal of becoming a lion trainer, the social worker wrote: \u201cYou told me you were going to take a plane to go on safari to Africa to look after lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thanked God when I was warned by the airport that you had cut the fence and got inside the landing gear compartment of a Gol Airlines plane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thanked God because they saw on the cameras that there was a teenager there before a tragedy happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Oliveira added: \u201cGerson\u2019s story is that of a boy who just wanted to get to know Africa to tame lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe discovered too late that a lion isn\u2019t a domestic cat and that we can\u2019t tame them without the right knowledge.<\/p>\n

“Sadly he wasn\u2019t sensible enough for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 19-year-old man has been killed in Brazil after climbing into a lion’s enclosure at a zoo in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,50,56,54,55,231],"class_list":["post-294334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}