Mountain lion kills man and drags cyclist

A man was killed by a mountain lion in the same area where a bicyclist was attacked by what was believed to be the same animal, officials in the United States said today.

Post mortem tests showed Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, 35, was killed by a mountain lion, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in California.

Tests were still under way to determine if it was the same animal that attacked the woman cyclist on Thursday evening and dragged her by the head along a mountain trail.

“In all probability it was the same mountain lion,” Amormino said.

Anne Hjelle, 30, was in serious condition after several other cyclists pulled her away from the lion.

“We’re happy she’s alive,” said her father, Lloyd Hjelle.

The two-year-old male cat, which weighed about 50 kilograms, was later killed.

Hjelle had been riding with a friend in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park shortly before dusk on Thursday when the lion pounced on her back, grabbed her by her head and began dragging her away, said her friend, Debbie Nichols. Nichols said she screamed for help and grabbed Hjelle’s legs in a struggle to free her.

“He dragged us down … about 100 yards into the brush and I just kept screaming,” Nichols said. “This guy would not let go. He had a hold of her face.”

Other cyclists in the area threw rocks at the animal until it fled.

Hjelle was airlifted to Mission Hospital, where her condition was upgraded to serious early Friday, a nursing supervisor said. She had been listed as critical.

After the attack, Reynolds’ body was found at the top of a trail near a bicycle. Authorities weren’t sure how long he had been there.

Authorities said a second mountain lion in the area was hit by a car and killed late on Thursday and would also be tested.

Including Thursday’s incident, there have been 13 mountain lion attacks on humans in California over the past 114 years, five of them fatal, said Doug Updike, a biologist with the state Fish and Game Department.