A TERRIFIED teacher cheated death after she was attacked by a lion on a safari trek in Africa.The powerful 400lb beast jumped on top of Kate Drew, 28, from behind after springing a terrifying ambush in deepest Zimbabwe, southern Africa.

A TERRIFIED teacher cheated death after she was attacked by a lion on a safari trek in Africa.

The powerful 400lb beast jumped on top of Kate Drew, 28, from behind after springing a terrifying ambush in deepest Zimbabwe, southern Africa.

The male lion put its massive paws on the primary school teacher's head and forced her to the ground in seconds - as two more bounded towards her.

Quick-thinking armed guides dashed to pull the awesome big cat off Kate and chased all three lions off into the bush.

The stunned teacher was rushed to hospital to have 13 stitches put into cuts on her head pouring blood.

Kate, of Hornchurch, Essex, said: “Luckily for me he was only playing otherwise I would not be here to tell the tale."

She added: “We were in a place where they breed lions to put them back into the wild.

“I was a bit apprehensive but we were just leaving and everything seemed to have gone well until this one lion jumped at me from behind.

“I was scared enough when he pinned me on the ground so when I looked up and saw two more coming towards me I thought 'oh my God - I'm a gonner'!”

Kate was on holiday in trouble-torn Zimbabwe after flying out to Tanzania, East Africa, last September to teach English to youngsters as part of the Village Africa project.

She was given a goat on her first day as she started teaching a huge class of 121 kids.

Kate has returned to Ardeigh Green Road Junior School, Hornchurch, to tell her former pupils about her amazing adventures in a specially arranged assembly.

She has been staying with her parents in Hornchurch and was jetting off to South America today (Feb 1) to work with disabled children in an orphanage in Peru as part of the Personal Overseas Development (POD) project.