MANE EVENT

WATCH: Lion Prowls Streets of Italian Town After Escaping Circus

The lion, an 8-year-old named Kimba, was caught and sedated around five hours after the town’s residents were warned to be on the alert.

A lion was filmed wandering the streets of an Italian seaside town for several hours after escaping from a nearby circus on Saturday night. Residents of Ladispoli, a comune about 35 kilometers west of Rome, were warned to stay indoors as authorities sought to capture the lion, an 8-year-old named Kimba. Several locals spotted and recorded the animal as it padded through the town’s abandoned streets for around five hours, with one heard saying “Mamma mia” as she filmed Kimba pass by her house. Alessandro Grando, Ladispoli’s mayor, announced later on Saturday night that the lion had been successfully “sedated and captured,” and would be returned to the Rony Roller Circus, according to Agence France-Presse. Rony Vassallo, an animal handler at the circus, told the news agency that his family was “very shaken and very tense” by the episode, which he believed was not an accident. Vassallo said Kimba, lightly sedated, had been examined by vets and was unharmed from his misadventure.