By Tim Binnall
Residents of a coastal community in Italy were ordered to stay inside their homes after a rather monstrous-looking lion managed to escape from a circus and wound up roaming the streets for hours. The wild incident reportedly happened on Saturday evening in the town of Ladispoli when the eight-year-old big cat named Kimba found a way out of its cage at the Rony Roller Circus, which had arrived in the area for a performance. In response, Mayor Alessandro Grando took to social media to warn residents of the sizeable lion prowling around the community and urged them to remain indoors until it could be taken into custody. From the safety of their homes and cars, some residents managed to capture footage of the big cat as it enjoyed its brief taste of freedom.
While authorities were understandably concerned about what might occur if Kimba encountered a person during its adventure, circus owner Rony Vassallo offered the hard-to-believe assurance that the lion posed no danger to the public and mused that his main concern was "that someone could have harmed the animal, out of fear, or excess enthusiasm." Fortunately, the big cat's friendliness was never put to the test as people were wise enough not to approach it and, after several hours, the creature was eventually corralled, sedated, and handed over to circus staff, who returned the sleeping beast to its enclosure.
Adding an air of mystery and possible conspiracy to the odd incident, Vassallo claimed that Kimba's cage was secure around an hour before the animal had somehow gotten loose, which has prompted rumors that the lock on the big cat's enclosure was intentionally forced open by a misguided individual. Though he stopped short of outright indicating that this was the case, the animal's owner called the whole affair "very strange" and promised that it would be investigated. For his part, Mayor Grando expressed hope that the frightening event can act as something of a wakeup call that will "finally put an end to the exploitation of animals in circuses."