BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- A Mexican woman said she used a machete to fight off a 500-pound lion that attacked her donkey on Monday near the resort city of Acapulco.

Celsa Aleman, 35, said she and her 7-year-old niece were riding a donkey along a road when the lion went after the animal's legs.

The woman says she found the courage to fight the lion because she thought it would attack her niece. She hit the animal with a machete until the beast ran away. Aleman and her niece were unharmed.

The state government said in a statement the lion had escaped from a private zoo owned by a former local congressman.

It said the animal killed two dogs and ate a pig before it was sedated and taken back to the zoo.

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