Alaina Urquhart

Anybody in here?

And he quickly scanned the interior of the tent and saw that there were definitely people in there and grabbed the nearest worker.

His name was Ungen Singh, and he grabbed him by the throat.

Oh.

So Singh cried out, Koro, which means let go, and wrapped his arm around the lion's neck, trying to get him to release him.

But the lion's grip was too tight, and the other men in the tent, just all they could do was watch in horror, as their literal friend and coworker was dragged into the darkness, screaming for his life.

Oh, my God.

So Patterson and the other men in the search party grabbed their rifles and went to investigate the area outside of Singh's tent.

And they found large paw prints in the sand and deep gashes in the earth, which showed them what direction that he was being dragged away.

And he said, we found it an easy matter to follow the route taken by the lion as he appeared to have stopped several times before beginning his meal.

oh the areas where the lion appeared to have paused were accompanied by pools of blood each larger than the last oh my god finally less than a mile from the tent they found singh's body it was they said it was unimaginable horror that's yeah his body appeared to have been completely ripped apart with the flesh torn from all but his head and feet

Patterson wrote the ground all around was covered with blood and morsels of flesh and bones.

But Singh's head had been left intact, the eyes staring wide open with a startled, horrified look in them.

Oh my god.

All around the body were paw prints, similar to those found along the bloody path that led from the tent to the body, but similar, but they weren't all the same.

And as they looked at the prints, it occurred to them that those were two distinct set of prints in the dirt, indicating that one lion definitely pulled him from the tent, but he had been killed and eaten by at least two.

oh my yeah patterson wrote i've witnessed many an accident with fatal consequences but the sight of this skeleton from which the flesh had been ravenously torn was one of the most gruesome spectacles imaginable also imagine you're standing there like taking that sitting duck but that's the thing exactly you're sitting there where that group of lions or pair of lions just had a meal where the fuck are they now yeah that's the thing like they're not sitting here watching oh that's horrifying

Now, in his mind, Patterson began thinking about all the stories he had heard about men going missing from caravans in the Savo region.

And he was like, oh, shit, is this the same group of lions that are responsible for those attacks?

And it seemed impossible because animal attacks didn't, you know, they happened from time to time, but they were like still exceedingly rare.