DISTURBING VIDEO: Man seriously injured after being mauled & dragged around by three lions at Barcelona Zoo

09 Dec, 2014 by Tiffiny Ruegner

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The 45-year-old police officer-turned-neo Nazi activist who was mauled by a pack of lions after jumping into their enclosure at Barcelona Zoo, has now been pictured for the first time.

Justo José Mira Payá, who remains in intensive care with serious injuries after he climbed into the lions’ den, is seen in one picture wearing a military uniform and looking straight into the camera. In a second, bizarre shot, Mira Payá, wears a helmet-like hat and a military uniform with a Catalan flag, with a camo-clad broomstick slung over his shoulder like a rifle. It has emerged that that as well as being a former head of the municipal police force in Gelida near Barcelona, Justo José Mira Pay had also spent 13 years working as a Civil Guard, but has been on paid leave from the force since earlier this year.

Mira Payá told a local reporter earlier this year how he went on extended leave after he lost custody of his son, divorced his wife, and lost his mother. He also described himself as a survivalist, claiming he slept in the countryside most nights with just a poncho to cover his face although friends let him use their homes to shave and wash. In September he got past a police cordon at an official ceremony and set fire to a Catalan flag in front of TV crews. Last month he was arrested in Barcelona city centre after draping banners emblazoned with Swastikas over the famous Casa Mila building in an anti-abortion protest.

According to Spanish reports, Mira Payá climbed over fencing to enter the enclosure as horrified tourists watched on. Footage of the bizarre incident shows him scaling one of the enclosure’s walls before being tossed by the leg into a pit by a lioness. He emerged some 30 minutes later after fire fighters used hoses to fight the animals off of him.

Both staff at the zoo and emergency services said that it is clear that Jose’s stunt was deliberate.

‘The security system makes it impossible for a person to fall into the enclosure. It cannot have been by accident, to enter (the enclosure) you have to want to go in,’ said chief fire fighter of the Bomberos de Barcelona, Hector Carmona.

While he emerged from the enclosure covered in bite marks and scratches, zoo keepers have insisted the lions were merely trying to play with him, Spanish news outlet 20minutos reports.

THIS VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS GRAPHIC FOOTAGE: