Teenager mauled to death by lion while filming TikTok video - The Independent

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A Pakistani teenager was mauled to death by a lion during the shooting of a TikTok video at a private breeding farm in Lahore.

The 19-year-old victim, identified as Taha, reportedly worked at the farm in Lahna town.

The incident took place at around 5pm local time on 11 November.

Noman Hassan, who has around 2.5m followers on Instagram and 928,000 on TikTok, arrived at the farm and called Taha to make a video with the lion for social media, the BBC reported, citing a police complaint.

Mr Hassan allegedly “took the lion out of the cage and started making a video”. That was when the lion suddenly attacked the teenager, according to the complaint filed by his father Munir Ahmed.

Mr Hassan took Taha to a local private hospital, but the teenager succumbed to his injuries.

Police later arrested Mr Hassan and the owner of the farm, identified as Fayyaz, and sealed the facility.

Police claimed the arrested men had made attempts to hide the truth and presented the incident as a dog attack. “A passion for TikTok cannot be more important than a human life," a spokesperson for the Lahore police said.

"No one can be allowed to put human life at risk in the name of a hobby or entertainment. The attempt to hide the facts and every aspect of negligence will be investigated."

Police said they were investigating whether the facility had the permit to keep the big cat and followed safety protocols.

Mr Hassan’s social media accounts are filled with hundreds of videos showing him interacting with big cats, at times engaging in rough play with the animals.

In Pakistan, owning lions, cheetahs, tigers, pumas, and jaguars is seen as a status symbol and is legal, provided the animals are registered and a one-time fee of 50,000 rupees (£129) is paid. Regulations, however, require such animals to be kept outside city limits.

In January, an eight-year-old boy lost his arm after being attacked by a pet lion at a private breeding farm in the Sabzazar area of Lahore.

In another incident, a girl suffered injuries when a pet lion being transported on a rickshaw escaped.

Last year, authorities launched a crackdown on the illegal keeping of lions as pets, following an incident in Lahore where a lion escaped and injured a woman and her two children.