'Scared to death': Terrifying moment cheetah jumps into safari car caught on video
A tourist has experienced "one of the scariest moments" of his life after a cheetah jumped into the back of his vehicle during a safari in Africa.
Incredible images show the heart-stopping moment the wild animal leaps into the back seat, just inches away from the terrified passenger.
The man in the footage, Britton Hayes from the US state of Washington, was exploring the Serengeti with a tour group earlier this month when they came across three cheetah brothers in the wild.
As the group watched on, the cheetahs soon noticed their presence and became curious of the vehicle.
"It was too late to drive quickly away or anything like that because you don't want to startle the animals, because that's when things usually go wrong," Mr Hayes told Komo News.
"One of the cheetahs hopped onto the hood and was sniffing around.
"While we were all watching the cheetah in the front, one of the brothers had flanked around the back and hopped in back of the vehicle to try and sniff us and make sure that we weren't a threat."
The tour guide instructed Mr Hayes to avoid eye contact with the animal and stay still to "allow the animal to see that it could trust us".
In the footage, Mr Hayes can be seen sitting completely still while the cheetah digs its claws into the headrest right next to him.
At one point, the animal comes forward to sniff Mr Hayes, almost touching his back.
"Honestly, it was probably one of the scariest moments of my life while it was happening," he said.
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"I felt like I had to clear my mind of any thoughts because from everything you're told about predators like that, they can sense fear and any sort of discomfort you're feeling and they'll react accordingly," said Hayes.
"I wanted to be as calm and as still as possible to avoid a bad outcome."
Mr Hayes said that despite being scared to death, he's never felt more alive.
