A lion attacked a little girl, detached her right palm in the presence of dozens of visitors and ate it on Sunday evening at the government-run Nandan Van zoo on the outskirts of state capital Raipur.

"Four-and-half-year-old Sapna Malik had visited the zoo with her uncle Asim Malik and was holding the enclosure wire fence in which a lion was kept. The lion attacked the girl in a flash and removed her right palm and ate it while the family cried for help," zoo in-charge R S Mishra said.