A lion trainer luckily survived after being mauled by a circus lion in front of shocked spectators.
Hamada Kouta, 32, from Egypt, was pinned to the ground when one of the two lions pounced on him during a performance in Lugansk of Ukraine.
He suffered injuries to his arm, leg and back.
Video captured by one of the audience members shows the lion trainer getting up after he fights the animal off animal.
Hamada escapes a second attack as the lions retreat and return to their enclosures.
A mother who was watching the show with her two children, said: "My heart stopped when the lion pounced at the trainer."
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Hamada, who has years of experiences working in Russian circuses, recalled the moment of the potentially fatal attack.
He said: "I called up one lion, and the second one attacked me from the front.
"I stopped him in the middle of the ring, calmed him down but he refused to return to his sitting position.
"I stepped backwards, there was a stand behind me, I hit it and fell. The lion jumped at me and bit me - but thank God not on my neck."
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The attack has left Hamada a 1.5-inch deep wound on his back, scars and tooth marks on his arm and leg.
Hamada, who treated the lions as his children, said the lions were unsettled and in stress because they were made to perform soon after arriving in a new location.
He explained: "When an animal attacks a trainer, it's 99 per cent the trainer's mistake.
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"Anyway they are my children, so I know anything can happen. But it will never end with death, because they are my children.
"I know them and I trust them more than I trust people."
Travelling circuses were recently banned in Ukrainian capital Kiev but Lugansk is currently outside Kiev's rule.
