A suspended police officer is hospitalized in intensive care after climbing into the Lion’s Den.  Literally.  The guy climbed into the big cat enclosure at the Barcelona Zoo in Spain, where the lions mauled their uninvited visitor for a half-hour before rescue.  And it was caught on video.

“To enter the enclosure, you have to want to go in,” said Barcelona fire chief Hector Carmona.  “It couldn't have been an accident because the security system makes it impossible for a person to fall into the enclosure.” 

The horrifying incident was captured on video by visitors at the zoo.  It shows 45-year old “Justo Jose” climbing on the rocks that separate the Lions from the Tigers.  A Lioness bolts across the enclosure and drags the guy into a moat.  Another female and a male then joined them down in the moat.  The beasts could easily have killed the man, but zookeepers say the big cats did not have murder on their minds.

“The intention was not to kill him, they were just trying to play with him,” said Ignasi Armengol, director of Barcelona Municipal Services. 

Visitors threw rocks to distract the lions, while zookeeper gathered water hoses to drive them back.  The man was rescued after 30 minutes, and taken to Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron hospital.  The Lions kept his rucksack.

Justo Jose has a history of erratic, overly dramatic behavior.  He was on unpaid leave from the police force for hanging nazi swastikas from architect Antoni Gaudi’s Casa Mila – known locally as “La Pedrera” – as part of an anti-reproductive rights protest.  Three months ago, he was arrested for burning a Catalan independence flag and a Palestinian flag.