LIONESS LOOSE IN A THEATRE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 258, 22 March 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

LIONESS LOOSE IN A THEATRE

WOMEN AND CHILDREN HURT IN A PANIC. Paris, January 20. A lioness which was released from its cage in the Popular Theatre in the Rue de Belleville last night, owing to an attendant's blunder, caused a panic ■which resulted in seven people being trampled and seriously injured. The lioness was one of the performers in a dramatic sketch. In this sketch a painter dreams that his wife and daughter are attacked and killed by lions which are the property of a woman with whom the painter has fallen in love. The little drama, in which the tamer Maruli has played for many years, is very popular in France, and the theatre was crowded for last night's performance. By some mistake the cage containing the lioness was placed on the stage with the wrong end towards the audience, bo that the astonished lioness, which should have been .behind the bars, bound herself between the cage and the orchestra.

There was a moment of dramatic tension. The' conductor of the orchestra sat motionless with terror, staring at the lioness, which waved its tail slowly and snarled at the conductor.

A woman shrieked. The lioness, with a roar of rage, crouched, sprang over the footlights and across the orchestra, knocking the player of the double bass and his instrument over, and landing in the front row of the stalls, from which the occupants had fled. She then leaped' into one of the boxes.

Thi» door of the box was open, and the lioness passed into the manager's room behind.

March, the lion tamer, sprang after tlie lioness and shut himself in the room. Ho stunned the animal with an iron bar, and then dragged her through a side door leading to the stage. Before the lioness recovered it was safely caged. Meanwhile the audience struggled towards 'the exits, and seven women and children were knocked down and hurt. Several women fainted.