American Woman Dragged To Her Death By A Lion And Another Person Seriously Hurt After Leaving Their Car Window Open During South African Safari

An American woman was dragged to her death and another person seriously injured after being pulled through their car window by a lion in a safari park in South Africa.

The two tourists were reportedly traveling with their windows open when the lion got inside. The woman was killed and the driver critically injured at Gauteng Lion Park near Johannesberg.

The park's manager Scott Simpson said: 'We don't know exactly what happened, we do know that there was a car driving to the lion camp and the lion did come through the window and it did bite the lady. Unfortunately the ambulance arrived quite soon but the lady has passed away.'

It is believed that the lion jumped through the window, bit the woman, and a man was injured trying to pull the lion off, although the park is still trying to establish exactly what happened.

It's the third big cat attack in the park in the Honeydew area of Johanessburg  in four months, reports ENCA. An Australian tourist, Brendan Smith, from Perth, was attacked by a lion in in March and two days after that, a 13-year-old boy was attacked by a cheetah.

Smith had also been travelling with his window open. The lion managed to get in his car through the window and bit him on the leg. Smith posted pictures of his injuries on Facebook. he'd only been in the country 36 hours.

Also a visitor to the Lion Park in 2014 uploaded a video on Youtube of a lion opening a car door.

Mr Simpson said visitors to the park are warned not to leave their windows open to avoid incidents like the latest tragedy.

He told ENCA: 'We make it so clear. We put signage up everywhere that people must keep their windows closed. We hand them a slip of paper when they enter the park, I really don't understand why people think its okay to leave windows open,' he said.

The lion park has now confirmed it was a female lion who attacked the tourist, and there are no plans to destroy the animal. The attack was witnessed by other visitors to the park, there were around 250 visitors today. The park will be open as usual tomorrow