A lioness escaped from her cage at the National Zoo in Mirpur, Dhaka yesterday afternoon (5 December) — prompting a major safety scare and triggering a full-scale evacuation of zoo visitors.

The animal remained at large for more than two-and-a-half hours before being safely sedated and returned to its enclosure.

Zoo officials are not treating the incident as a mere accident, but suspecting it as a deliberate sabotage. According to the zoo’s Director Mohammad Rafiqul Islam Talukder the lion’s cage is secured by two iron-gate doors, each with its own lock. Yet, when checked following the escape, both locks had been found open.

According to officials, the escape happened around 4:45pm. Once the lioness was out, staff immediately evacuated all visitors and cordoned off the surrounding area. Initial attempts to dart her with a tranquillizer failed due to trees and other obstacles near where she took cover.

Authorities were able to get the lion back into the enclosure at around 7:20pm. Photo: Courtesy

By about 7:00pm, after sedating her with an anesthetic dart, the zoo staff successfully brought the lioness back into her cage by around 7:20pm. Thankfully, no visitors or bystanders were harmed, though there was panic among onlookers.

Talukder told reporters that the open locks could have resulted in a far more serious disaster — especially if more than one lion had escaped. “We are not treating this as a simple accident,” he told The Business Standard.

The zoo authorities were alerted just in time and it was therefore possible to bring the situation under control. When the lion escaped, a guard spotted it, alerted the authorities, who immediately evacuated the visitors, he said.

“We have formed a three-member committee under Curator Dr Atikur Rahman to probe into the incident. We are also examining whether the two guards on duty were involved,” Talukder told TBS.

Currently, there are five lions housed at the National Zoo. The cage from which the lioness escaped had recently been assigned a male lion.