A heroic veterinary nurse used a broom to fight off two lions mauling a teenager before administering life saving first aid at an animal centre in Africa.

Natalie Bennett, who works at the Stone Lion veterinary practice in Wimbledon, was nearing the end of a three month volunteer programme in South Africa when the freak accident happened.

The 24-year-old, from Carshalton, was helping to clean out the lion’s feeding cages at the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in South Africa when she heard the piercing screams of an 18-year-old girl, Canadian Lauren Fagen.

She said: "At first we thought it was a group messing about because of the lions.

"A split second later we realised what it was and started running.

"When we got there a couple of volunteers were in complete shock and were just stood there terrified."

Miss Fagen, 18, from Montreal, had been dragged through the cage by her knees after kneeling by the cage and putting her hand out for the lions to "lick".

A male grabbed her knee through the bars and pulled her leg into the cage, closely followed by a lioness who grabbed her other leg leaving her powerless.

Miss Bennett said: "We tried to distract the lions by thundering on the cages to try and scare them and we got brooms and brushes to try and get them off her."

"It was the lioness we were worried about because they are the killers.

"The male was hand reared by the student coordinator so all he had to say was no and he would back off, but because there was blood you can’t really expect them to differentiate between meat you are providing to them and not."

After two frantic minutes the lions released their grip on the 18-year-old who was bleeding heavily having sustained severe wounds to her legs and thighs.

As the first medically qualified volunteer on the scene, Miss Bennett sprung into action using skills she learned in the veterinary practice applying pressure to the wound and preventing the girl from going into shock before a paramedic arrived on the scene.

Miss Bennett said: "Both her knees were injured and she had puncture wounds in the calf and huge gouges out of her thigh.

"She was extremely luck the lions didn’t just rip her legs off, and that they did not hit the ephemeral artery."

Her mother, Debbie Bennett, praised her daughter's quick actions.

She said: "Natalie is a qualified veterinary nurse so is quite capable of doing first aid and keeping calm so she would have been a very good person to have in that situation.

"It would have been very difficult for her to see because she loves the wildlife and animals and to see one attack a volunteer must have been very difficult for her.

"From what she’s told me it seems as if she was a bit of a heroine to get in there and try and get this lion off that was attacking a volunteer - I think she did brilliantly."

The girl is now recovering in hospital but will be left with significant scarring.