I live in a seaside town called Cleethorpes, I can walk straight into Grimsby, in fact if I stood in the middle of some roads I can have one leg in Cleethorpes & the other in Grimsby, that is how close we are. One night 28 years ago this happened:- Stories about clowns chasing lions down Victoria Street don’t happen very often. A special 6am edition of the then Grimsby Evening Telegraph brought the shocking news to the town with the headline: “Terror as four lions flee big top – man mauled in circus break-out.” It was the stuff of a Hollywood film script – but it became reality at around 7.40pm on Thursday, March 7 1991. The four lions escaped from Chipperfield’s Circus, which had set up in Burgess Street, after their cage was sabotaged. They roamed the streets for more than an hour before they were caught and returned. During that hour of terror, Grimsby father Michael Strandt was mauled by one of the beasts. He needed 24 stitches after a lion pounced on him and sunk its teeth into his neck. Mr Strandt had been dashing to the aid of his wife and young daughter who were caught up in the scenes of chaos. He owes his life to heroic policeman Ron Harrison, who rammed the animal with his patrol car. “The next thing, this lion was pounding after me. It leaped up to me, grabbing the top of my shoulder, and pulled me down,” Mr Strandt said shortly after his ordeal. The front page of the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, March 8, 1991 when the lions escaped “I thought I was never going to get up. I rolled into a ball to try to protect myself.” Circus staff were widely praised for the way they handled the break-out, and one red-nosed clown was hailed a hero after he chased after one of the lions. “The clown, complete with red nose, big feet and ridiculous costume trapped one of the lions in an alley at the Victoria Street bus station,” we reported. The clown had earlier rushed into the nearby Grimsby Police Station to alert the force about what had happened. Along with Sgt Stewart Bellamy, the clown used the stick and chair to keep the animal at bay until help arrived. Sgt Bellamy said: “I was absolutely terrified. “The clown was very, very brave. “I was outside the police station in a car when I saw a clown and a lion. The animal was going down the passageway at the bus station.” The police sergeant blocked the passage with his car, and the clown used the chair and stick to ward off the lion before some gates were shut to trap the animal. “I thought that was it, we had the lion. But then the clown informed me there were three more on the loose! The brave clown, armed with only a chair, helps police as they try to capture the circus fugitives “The reaction of people nearby was total disbelief and they would not take notice of what we were telling them. They were putting themselves in great danger,” he said at the time. Eyewitnesses in the big top told how the circus turned into a “horror movie”. Gordon Contegiacomo was 18 and sat in one of the back rows with his brother. “It was just chaotic. The lions were first on but they came straight back out again after they had gone off,” he said. “I saw a guy in blue overalls come running back in the ring like a bat out of hell. “We were lucky to get out quite quickly.” said a Grimsby woman who was sitting at the ringside with her son. “The lions had been performing but did not seem to want to play,” she said. “Music came on after the performance and I looked round to see people stampeding from the back. The lions were rounded up after their escape “Someone shouted the lions are on the loose. I grabbed my son and got him out.” One of the lions was captured after being trapped in the Grimsby Cleethorpes Transport bus depot, now operated by Stagecoach. Brian Doyle, a club steward for Grimsby Cleethorpes Transport told the Telegraph there were around 30 staff in the building at the time. “It just kept roaring and roaring – it was obviously on the defensive and nobody was sure how it was going to react,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot happen on GCT property, but never a lion.” Despite the escape – and further protests by activists – the show went on the next night as normal as scores of families refused to let the drama stop their evening out. Thankfully animals in circus's are a thing of the past in most countries but not all I hasten to add. What with trophy hunting, horrible things going on in certain countries animals do have a rough time. https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/chipperfields-circus-lions-escaped-grimsby Thanks for the lovely comments, so appreciated. x