Mexican woman on donkey fends off lion

Aug 7 2008

ACAPULCO, Mexico - A Mexican woman says she fought a 225-kilogram lion with a machete near the resort city of Acapulco and scared him away.

Celsa Aleman says she and her seven-year-old niece were riding a donkey Monday along a road when the lion went after the animal's legs.

The 35-year-old woman said she found the courage to fight the lion because she thought it would attack her niece.

She said she hit the animal with a machete until the beast ran away and Aleman and her niece were unharmed.

The state government says the lion had escaped from a private zoo owned by a former local congressman.

It says the animal killed two dogs and ate a pig before it was sedated and taken back to the zoo.