Mother of a 5-year-old fought off a mountain lion that attacked her child in Colorado Friday night.
According to officers the boy was playing outside when the mother heard screaming, she ran outside and saw the lion on top of her son attacking him.
The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office say’s they mother dragged her son away, he was playing outside in the front yard with his older brother.
The boy suffered face, head and neck injuries and was in fair condition at a hospital in Denver. The mother was also treated to a hospital.
Sheriff’s deputies killed the lion for the attack after they found it wandering near the home.
According to wildlife officials, the lion was 2 years old and had been seen previously in the area where the attack occurred.
Officers with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the federal wildlife authorities are tracking a second lion and will kill the animal when they find it.
A necropsy will be performed on the lion suspected in the attack.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said the last known lion attack on a human in Colorado occurred in July 2015. A young lion attacked a man as he fished along north of Dotsero, about 60 miles from where Friday night’s attack occurred. The man had scratches and bites on his back and was treated and released from a local clinic.
The lion in that incident, described as a small, yearling male, was tracked and killed.