Moments from Death
A JOHANNESBURG engineer has described the horrific moment tourist Katherine Chappell was attacked by a lion and mauled to death.
Ben Govender, who was driving behind tour guide Pierre Potgieter at the Lion Park near Lanseria, took a photograph when he saw the lioness peering into the car.
Seconds later, the animal tore a bite from the 29-year-old American’s shoulder.
“It was terrifying. After the first bite the lioness retreated from the car with blood dripping from her mouth and paw,” Govender told The Daily Mirror.
“We all thought she was done and didn’t like what she’d just bitten. But like someone in a temper that wasn’t satisfied in a fight, she leapt back into the car and mauled the passenger.”
He said the lioness was with a male lion that did not join the attack.
When park rangers approached, the two lions ran off, but the lioness had half the pas- senger’s shoulder in her mouth.
“It was too late to do anything to save her,” Govender said.
He said Potgieter had been the first to wind down his window.
“The passenger did the same, I presume to get a photo,” said Govender.
“The male lion didn’t seem very interested by this and the lioness didn’t seem bothered, either.
“She got up very lazily and stretched out her body. Then suddenly, without warning, she stood up at the window.”
Preliminary findings of an internal investigation into the attack are expected early next week. The park warns visitors not to open the windows of their vehicles.
Potgieter suffered injuries, as well as a heart attack, after trying to fend off the lioness during the attack. On Friday, he was still in intensive care in a Fourways hospital.
His wife, Corlien Potgieter, said: ‘‘The doctor said it was because of the trauma he witnessed that he had a heart attack.”
Chappell had been volunteering in South Africa to raise money for wildlife protection.
Her sister, Jennifer, posted on Facebook that Chappell had been an “adventurous and highspirited woman”.
Govender’s picture of the lion peering into the car (see Page 1) was at the centre of controversy yesterday after the worldwide copyright owners, Featureworld, said it had been illegally used.
Company representative Alison Smith-Squire said: “Any photo being offered to you has been stolen from online — right now the New York Daily News has it online, for example. If any photo is printed without my written permission it will be in breach of copyright laws.”
She said the image bought by the Sunday Times was legitimate.
It was too late to do anything to save her