Woman Killed in Suspected Colorado Mountain Lion Attack

A woman was killed in a suspected mountain lion attack while she was hiking alone in the mountains of northern Colorado on Thursday, in what would be the first fatal attack by one of the predators in the state in more than 25 years, authorities said. Wildlife officers later in the day located two mountain lions in the area and fatally shot the animals, said Kara Van Hoose with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The attack occurred in the mountains south of the small community of Glen Haven, about 7 miles northeast of Estes Park and considered the gateway to the eastern entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, the AP reports.

Shortly before noon, two hikers encountered a mountain lion near the woman's body along a remote section of the Crosier Mountain trail, which is on a national forest. The hikers threw rocks at the animal to scare it from the immediate area so they could try to help the woman, Van Hoose said. One of the hikers was a physician who attended to the victim and did not find a pulse, she said. Van Hoose said the search for other mountain lions in the area was ongoing. She said circumstances would dictate whether any additional lions that are found are killed.

Sightings of mountain lions are common in the forested area where the suspected attack occurred, but there have not been any recent documented attacks on humans, Van Hoose said. Mountain lion attacks are rare and Colorado's last suspected fatal attack was in 1999, when a 3-year-old was killed. Two years before that, a 10-year-old boy was killed by a lion and dragged away while hiking with family members in Rocky Mountain National Park.