[This post contains material that may be upsetting to some readers.]

An escaped lion found wandering on a Anhui provincial highway was shot to death when police deemed it a threat to public safety, though no one can agree on where the lion came from.

Police fired more than 20 shots in order to put down the lion, a female that weighed about 400 pounds (around 200 kilograms). “We have to make sure the lion is dead. That’s why we fired so many shots,” a policeman said. “The lion will become more dangerous if it is shot but not dead.”

According to the police, the lion was in heat and “could have acted very aggressively.”

A local forestry official said the use of force was justifiable because the lion was near to a populated area and that getting a tranquilizer gun to safely subdue the lion would have taken “too long”. “It is reasonable for local policemen to do so,” said the official.

The lion was first noticed by a truck driver who ran into it with his truck around 10pm, injuring its left leg. By the time police arrived, the lion was said to be just 500 meters away from a service station. Despite attempts to draw it away, the lion continued to get closer to the service station, said to be just 300 meters away at 11:40pm.

With its lame leg, the lion paused at various points as it approached the service station. “Maybe because she was tired or saw there were too many cars, the lion stopped and laid down,” said highway worker Zhang Shuke.

With it not being an indigenous animal to China, opinions vary as to how a lion ended up on a Chinese highway.

Vice president of Hefei Wild Animal Zoo Jiang Hao told People’s Daily Online that the lion might have been left behind by a vehicle transporting animals. “The cage that blocked the lion opened and the lion walked out without being noticed due to darkness,” Jiang guessed.

Secretary general of the Yongqiao Circus Association Zhang Yongheng told China Daily that the lion came from a circus troupe in Yongqiao, Suzhou.

Meanwhile, Shanghai Daily points out the illegal raising of endangered animals is a lucrative trade in China as these prized animals are believed to have restorative properties in traditional Chinese medicine.

The lion is a Class II endangered animal in China that is protected by law.

Whatever its origins, no one has stepped forward to claim the missing lion as their own, possibly fearing legal reprisals.