WATCH: Terrifying moment as circus lion pounces on ringmaster. Here's how he prompted the animal to leave the main performance area

In a terrifying incident, a lion suddenly pounced and attacked a circus trainer in front of a large audience in Ukraine circus. Hamada Kouta, the 32-year-old was literally pinned down by the big cat in the middle of the act. According to reports, his arm, leg and back were mauled and clawed before the lion finally walked away. The incident took place during the a circus show called “Treasures of Egypt”. Luckily, he managed to push the lion off and get to his feet, which prompted the animal to move away and eventually leave the main performance area.

The circus trainer told local reports that he tried to resume the performance to help calm down the children who were screaming. 

“I calmly called them back, because there were children in the audience,” he said. “The most important thing for me is to see children in the audience.”

A mother watching with her two children said:

“My heart stopped when the lion pounced at the trainer.”

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Talking to local media, Kouta said the attack happened as the lions were in a bad mood.

“They can be moody, like people. For example, you can wake up in the morning in the bad mood. That’s it, the whole day will be like this. They are just the same. They did not have time to adapt, because we arrived and immediately began to perform". 

In a video for his fans, he stressed that when there is an attack like this on trainers, most of the times it’s the trainer’s fault.