Chinese man knocked to ground by giant panda after climbing inside zoo enclosure ‘to impress women’

A Chinese man visiting a zoo had a lucky escape after being grabbed and knocked to the ground by a playful giant panda after he allegedly climbed inside its enclosure while trying to impress two women companions, mainland media reports.

The unnamed man, aged about 20, was left unharmed – but his trousers worn torn to shreds in the incident at Nanchang Zoo, in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, on Thursday, which was captured on video and posted online by another tourist, Jiangxi Television reported.

The manager of the zoo said in the report the man was lucky that Mei Ling, a 12 year-old male giant panda weighing 120kg, had wanted only to play with him or he might have been seriously hurt. Although giant pandas looked cute and timid, when they became agitated they could turn dangerous and cause severe injuries with their jaws and sharp claws, the manager said.

The man had jumped over a 1.3-metre-high perimeter fence, then leapt across a three-metre-deep ditch to reach the playground used by giant pandas while trying to impress his companions, the report said.

Mei Ling, the only giant panda in the enclosure at the time, was asleep and initially did not notice the intruder.