A man has been mauled to death by a lion after he reportedly broke into a zoo enclosure to try to steal a cub.
The intruder - who is believed to have been in his 30s - was savagely killed by the predator after he jumped over the security fences at Accra Zoo in Ghana.
"The intruder was attacked and injured by one of the lions," the state agency Forestry Commission said on their Facebook page on Sunday (August 28), adding that the man had died from wounds he sustained in the vicious attack.
It has also been reported that after the horrific attack, the lion, a lioness, and two cubs were found safe and secure in their enclosure.
Watch the local news coverage below:Authorities have revealed that they have not yet determined the motive behind the breach but there is speculation that the middle-aged man had been after at least one of the two lion cubs.
As reported by the Guardian, the Accra Police Service spoke on the slaying and said: "We're investigating the case to establish how the man got into the restricted area."
According to the local outlet 3NewsGH, officials who responded to the scene were able to safely remove the intruder’s lifeless body and transport it to the local morgue for an autopsy.
"The police are working with the management of the zoo and the forestry commission to get to the bottom of this unfortunate incident," officials stated.
The state agency also disclosed that officials had since visited the attraction "to ensure all facilities remain secure" and make sure there isn't a repeat of the bloody incident.
The Accra Zoo was first founded as a private menagerie in the early 1960s by Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah. The cubs were born at the historical zoo in November 2021 and have been attracting crowds of spectators since, per BBC News.
Benito Owusu Bio, Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources spoke about the behavioral traits of the lions and said: "The lions have cubs so if you come too close they may feel you are trying to take away their babies," adding: "We ask the public to desist from doing anything like this."
According to the Global White Lion Protection Trust, only about a dozen white lions exist in the wild. The cubs the man was allegedly trying to steal are rare and valuable to poachers because of their unusual light coloring.
The wild animal is rarely found in the Ghanian safari, however, researchers say a small population could still be present in the country's northern Mole National Park.