Lion found hanged in the 'zoo of death'

A lion has been found hanged to death in his own cage in an Indonesian zoo notorious for premature animal deaths.

The 18-month-old African lion, named Michael, was strangled by a steel wire in his cage in Surabaya Zoo - which has been dubbed the "zoo of death" by local media.

A zoo official claimed the hanging was an accident and not caused by animal neglect.

The zoo in Indonesia's capital Jakarta is notorious for its poor conditions, where around 25 animals die prematurely each month, according to officials speaking in 2010.

A Sumatran tiger died after eating meat laced with formaldehyde - a chemical preservative - and a giraffe was found dead with a ball of plastic weighing nearly three stone in its stomach, the Jakarta Globe reported.