A mother has survived after fighting off a lion by biting its eye when it attacked her outside her home.
Lidia Hernández, 40, was doing laundry when Salomé, a two-year-old female African lion, nearly mauled her to death on January 31.
The beast had reportedly escaped from a home in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes during a failed burglary.
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It killed two dogs and a cat before turning up outside Hernández's home in Aguascalientes City.
Speaking to El Heraldo de Mexico, Lidia said she first spotted a huge shadow out of the corner of her eye and assumed it was a human.
She only noticed it was a lion when it began growling.
"I remember that I was just opening the door when I was going to go out to rinse some pants," she said.
"When I opened the door she jumped on me and I said oh my God who attacked me. I thought it was a big shadow, a shadow of a person."
Univision reported that Hernández bit the beast's eye to get away.
She was still badly injured and was rushed to the nearby Hospital Miguel Hidalgo in a critical condition.
Lidia is now recovering at home. She is currently wheelchair bound and required multiple stitches on her arms, legs and head.
The lion's owner, Geovany Javier, 34, was arrested and is being investigated for malicious injury.
He was eventually able to regain control of Salomé and bundled the lion into a vehicle.
Police confiscated the beast as well as another lion, a nine-month-old male called Cachito.
Javier told local media that he had all the necessary permits to keep the lions, and that his house had been inspected and approved by the relevant authorities as suitable for keeping big cats.
Hernández is calling for Javier to cover the costs of her recovery, a request he has thus far denied.
"The daughters want me to support them. Well, no," he said.
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