A circus lion startled by the audience at a show in east China's Anhui Province leapt a barrier and plunged into the crowd, injuring three people including a woman who suffered a miscarriage, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

The lion was shot dead in the early hours of Tuesday morning after police failed to trap it for more than 7 hours, the report said. The 4-year-old female lion was performing on Monday night in Mingguang, a city about 150 kilometers northeast of Hefei, Anhui's capital.

The report said the lion was already upset when it was caged in front of the circus to attract customers after being transported from its home in neighboring Jiangsu Province. The audience of more than 200 people were very noisy when the lion was brought out for the final show.

Suddenly it leapt over the 2-meter-high protection fence into the panicked crush of spectators. People started escaping in chaos, and many people were stepped on and injured.

The lion escaped the circus and ran down an alley.

"One pregnant woman was crushed and suffered a miscarriage from the shock," Xinhua said.

"Because the lion was rented, it didn't trust the trainers."

Later police found the lion lying in a vegetable field and immediately marked off an area around it. But because of the holiday, police were unable to get anaesthetic dart guns. They tried to trap the animal using nets, rope loops and cage loops.

However, the lion escaped over high barriers with circus staff and police chasing after. When the lion further threatened people's lives after reaching residential gardens, Mingguang officials finally decided to kill it.

(China Daily October 6, 2006)