This is the tense moment when British tourists rescued a group of tourists after their car broke down surrounded by lions in a safari park.
Richard Sandiland was visiting Kruger National Park, South Africa, earlier this month when a group of fellow travelers urgently informed him that his car had broken down and had a dead battery.
In the chilling clip, Richard, from Rowley Regis, West Midlands, can be seen using his car to block the hungry big cats while South African motorists use jump cables on the stranded vehicle.
One of the trapped travelers can even be heard fearing becoming one of the “dinners” of the oncoming lions.
Richard said the huge predators “could have attacked us in seconds” in a disturbing account of the incident.
Two groups of tourists worked together to get the stranded car moving
Richard Sandiland was visiting Kroger National Park, South Africa, when he saw the trapped tourists.
He said: ‘We were driving and saw a car off the dirt road. You’re not supposed to go off the roads, so we were a little surprised.
“I immediately thought it might be a sighting and sure enough, there were two lions not far from the blue car, about 60 feet away.
‘We took some photos and then saw an arm out the car window calling to us. Then he told us that his battery was somehow dead and he couldn’t turn it on.
“Their window barely worked because the battery was dead and they were worried they wouldn’t be able to lift it if the lions showed up.”
“The driver then said he had jump cables, but my mom said there was no way anyone could go out with the lions around.
‘At this point, one of them had woken up and was definitely looking at us. Fortunately, five minutes down the road, we saw a larger car and flagged them down.
‘I guess that lion could have been on us in seconds and they are so big up close.
‘Looking back, I think it was foolish, but I could easily have changed the other way.
“But if we hadn’t passed, I’m not sure if the other car would have followed the same route to pass the blue car, so who knows how long they might be stuck there?”
Richard used his car to block the lions while another motorist started the stranded vehicle.
Richard explained his family’s reluctance to get out of the car after seeing that the nearest lion had woken up.
Fortunately, a local was nearby and took it upon themselves to help.
Richard said: ‘He was South African…he said to just block them with our cars.
“Anyway, he followed us and lost a bit of confidence, but he stopped and to be honest it was pretty quick to get him going.”
This comes just weeks after a woman was killed by a rampaging bull elephant while on safari in Zambia.
A woman in her eighties was killed in the attack while traveling with five other tourists on safari in Kafue National Park in April.
The vehicle was attacked and overturned when the enraged five-tonne animal, apparently separated from its herd, ran at top speed to catch up with the vehicle thought to be traveling at 40km/h, before the driver abruptly stopped.
The video shows one tourist saying “oh my God” as the elephant keeps pace with the car, while another says “oh oh” and a third adds “it’s coming fast” in the last desperate moments before the collision.
The ranger suddenly stops the vehicle before the elephant turns to the right and attacks the safari truck, leading to speculation in wide shots that they had run out of road.
The driver shouts ‘hey hey hey hey hey’ loudly when he realizes that this is not a dummy cargo and that the five-ton elephant measuring 10 feet tall is intending to make a deadly attack.
