Escaped lion sparks panic in Italian town near Rome as terrified residents ordered to stay indoors

AN ITALIAN seaside town was under lockdown after a lion escaped from a local circus and prowled down residential streets.

Terrified residents of Ladispoli, near Rome, were told to stay indoors on Saturday night as police hunted the beast down.

Alessandro Grando, the mayor of Ladispoli, had warned residents to stay at home while police and circus staff sought to catch the animal.

It proved to be a difficult mission as three vets armed with rifles managed to find the lion and shoot it with a tranquilliser but failed to sedate it.

It simply got up and limped off, reports local news outlet.

In the meantime, videos surfaced all over on social media of the lion, known as Kimba, prowling through local neighbourhoods.

Scared onlookers filmed the animal from inside the safety of their homes as it made its way through the darkness.

One person even captured the lion walking past their car as flashing lights from emergency services can be seen in the background.

Police and members of the circus spent several hours chasing the animal before eventually sedating it a second time at around 8:30pm.

At 10pm, seven hours after it's escape, Kimba was finally captured after becoming stuck in a swamp along the Sanguinara stream.

Local media claimed that the lion made an attempt to return to the area of the circus, where it was eventually caught.

Authorities are now looking into how the animal escaped from its cage at the Rony Roller circus.

In a Facebook post around 10:30pm, more than five hours after his original message raising the alarm, Grando said the lion had been "sedated and captured".

"Now he will be taken in hand by the circus staff,"; he wrote, thanking emergency services and volunteers who helped during "these hours of great concern".

"I hope that this episode can stir some consciences, and that we can finally put an end to the exploitation of animals in circuses," the mayor added.

Anticipating residents' complaints, he earlier said he had not authorised the presence of a circus with lions in the town, but said he did not have the power to block it.