two lioness reared up in attack that killed American tourist Katherine Chappell in South African safari park

This is the horrifying moment a lioness reared up and mauled to death an American tourist after she stopped to take a photograph in a South African safari park. 

 

Standing on its hind legs, the lioness is seen peering into the vehicle seconds before it attacked Katherine Chappell, an editor on hit TV show Game of Thrones, through the open window.

Engineer Ben Govender, 38, who was in the car behind Miss Chappell, said 'no one could have imagined' what would happen in the minutes after he took the extraordinary photograph.

He described the 'terrifying' scene as he watched the animal take its first bite out of the passenger on the back seat before retreating from the vehicle, blood dripping from its mouth and paw. 

This image captures the horrifying the moment the lioness reared up before attacking American tourist Katherine Chappell

Miss Chappell, 29, was killed in the safari park north of Johannesburg on Monday while taking a break from a two-week volunteering project on another nature preserve.

 

Mr Govender said that at first the male and female lions did not seem interested - and that the lioness stood up 'without warning'.

He said: 'It was terrifying. After the first bite the lioness retreated from the car with blood dripping from her mouth and paw.

'We all thought she was done and didn’t like what she’d just bitten. But then like someone in a temper that wasn’t satisfied in a fight, she leaped back into the car and mauled the passenger.

The rangers came running in and the two lions ran off but the lioness had half the passenger’s shoulder in her mouth. And it was too late to do anything to save her.'

Mr Govender, who lives nearby, was visiting the park with his mother, sister and friends, when he watched the driver of the vehicle in front stop next to two lions and roll down his window. 

 

Her funeral will be held tomorrow in Rye, the suburb of New York where Miss Chappell grew up. Above, crowds at the wake 

The passenger, Miss Chappell, did the same.

He said: 'We decided to show our friends a local spot where they could see real lions in a "wild" setting. The SUV in front of us stopped next to two lions and the driver rolled down his window.