Photographer captures image of #lion moments before the cat prepares to pounce

• Photographer Atif Saeed crept to within ten feet of the hungry male lion 
• Fearless Mr Saeed left the safety of his car to sit on the ground for the shot
• As soon as the camera captured the image, Mr Saeed had to flee for his life
• The lion charged at the intrepid photographer as he closed the car's door

By Darren Boyle for MailOnline

Published: 8 April 2015

This is the amazing scene as a freelance photographer risks his life to capture an image of a hungry lion from just a few feet away. Fearless Atif Saeed, 38, from Lahore, Pakistan was in the city's safari park when he spotted the male lion in the distance. Mr Saeed got out of his car and crept up towards the hunter armed only with a camera and fired off a few frames. 

Atif Saeed crept to within 10 feet of the hungry lion before leaving the safety of his car to lie on the ground

Armed only with a camera, Mr Saeed, managed to capture a couple of frames before retreating to safety. Unfortunately, the clicking sound of the camera's shutter alerted the lion to Mr Saeed's presence, who was forced to retreat quite rapidly from just 10 feet away from the lion. 

He said: 

'I was sitting in front of him just near my car and the door of my car was open. I was sat on ground few feet away, so he was treating me like his prey. I was thinking - I must show the character and status of lion and this was the only way I could think of to achieve this. The story finished in few seconds as the lion aggressively jumped towards me and I just about scrambled into my car. I was laughing at that time, but now when I think back about the incident I don’t think I would be able to do it again. It was a pretty close encounter.'

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